Thiruvananthapuram: In a strong defence of the police, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the state police had taken swift and effective action in all the three cases of child abuse in Kottiyoor, Walayar (Palakkad), and Muttil (Wayanad). “All the accused in the three cases have been nabbed by the police,” the Chief Minister said while replying to an adjournment motion on the issue moved by Congress leader K. Muraleedharan in the Assembly on Wednesday. Ironically, few hours after the Chief Minister made the statement in the Assembly, the investigating officer in the Walayar case was replaced.
“No one, however highly placed the person is, will be let off the hook,” the Chief Minister added. However, he refused to entertain the Opposition demand that Assembly the proceedings be put on hold to discuss the issue. In protest, the opposition staged a walk out. Mr Muraleedharan's charge was that the Chief Minister was reduced to a mere spectator as the police bungled from one abuse case to the other.
The Chief Minister, however, said the police had done a commendable job. The Walayar case, involving the deaths of two school girls, is being investigated by a special investigation team led by ASP G. Poonkuzhali. “Since sexual assault could not be ruled out, a case has been registered under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) Act,” the Chief Minister said.
He said that after the first death, the police had inferred that it was a case of suicide. “The possibility of sexual violence became evident only after the police came in possession of the post-mortem report and chemical analysis,” Mr Vijayan said. In Muttil, Wayanad, where seven girls of a Muslim orphanage were sexually abused by two people in a tea shop nearby and their friends, the Chief Minister said 10 cases had been registered. “All the accused are in the police net,” he said. As further proof of police alacrity, the Chief Minister said that the priest accused of impregnating a minor girl was nabbed just when he was attempting to fly for Canada.
Meanwhile Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in the Assembly that T.P. Sen Kumar was removed not for the way he handled the Jisha murder case but simply because he was unfit to hold the post of DGP. “His recent activities will testify to this,” the Chief Minister said.
