Thiruvananthapuram: The lackadaisical attitude shown by the government towards the judicial probe into the Puttingal firework mishap and the undue delay in the Crime Branch probe stand in sharp contrast to the undue haste shown by the government in removing Mr T.P. Senkumar as the state police chief citing the Puttingal incident as one reason. Even a year after the tragedy that claimed 110 lives, none of the accused could be brought before the law. The unauthorised use of explosives in large quantities with the connivance of the Puttingal Devi Temple authorities and the lapses on the part of the revenue and police officials in enforcing the ban on competitive fireworks were prima facie found responsible for the tragedy.
The then UDF government had announced a judicial probe immediately after the mishap. The Justice Krishnan Nair commission remained as a non-starter till its six-month term ended. As the repeated pleas to the LDF government to provide infrastructure for the commission yielded no result, the commission relieved himself from the mission. The LDF government in February 2017 appointed a new commission, Justice S. Gopinath, to take forward the task. The commission just commenced the probe and it may take at least a year to finish the work, sources point out. The Crime Branch probe into the tragedy was held over due to the differences in fixing the charges against the police and revenue officials.
The probe was over about six months back and the Crime Branch was of the opinion that only department proceedings could be initiated against the police and revenue officials. Following a DC report that the police and revenue officials may go scot-free, tghe then additional chief secretary (home) Nalini Netto (currently chief secretary) had written to state police chief Loknath Behera citing that lapses on the part of the police in the tragedy should also be probed. This had even kicked up allegations that Ms. Netto’s directive amounted to external intervention in a police investigation, which was illegal. The norms permit only police officers up to the state police chief to make interventions in a police investigation.
