A Kerala Police officer has been suspended for allegedly having links with activists of banned outfit Popular Front of India (PFI), police said. Ernakulam (rural) District Police Chief Vivek Kumar issued an order on October 4 immediately suspending the Civil Police Officer (CPO) who is alleged to have links with PFI activists, according to a report submitted by the SHO of Pothanikkad police station. The order said he was being suspended immediately, pending an investigation, for dereliction of duty, indiscipline and failure to perform his responsibilities which have not only maligned the prestige of the force, but also led to the public losing its respect for the police.
It also said that an officer of the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police would be investigating the allegations against the CPO, who was posted at Kalady police station and would submit a report with his recommendations within 14 days.
The order states that according to the report, the CPO -- C A Siyad -- without knowledge or permission of his superiors, tried to meet the PFI activists who were in custody at Perumbavoor police station in connection with the September 23 hartal related violence and attempted to unauthorisedly intervene in the investigation in the case.
The report claimed that he called up various police officers to ask about the details of the case, arrests and the possibility of grant of bail to the accused who were booked for offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act for violent acts, including damaging buses, during the hartal. It further claimed that examination of the phone of Siyad, revealed numbers of various PFI activists and that he had contacted them several times.
The report further alleged that the CPO, despite knowing the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and murder charges against some PFI activists, was not careful in his dealings with them. It also alleged that he had received on his WhatsApp photographs of the political killing of BJP OBC Morcha leader Ranjeet Sreenivas in Alappuzha in December last year.
The BJP leader was hacked to death in his home, the very next day after Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) state secretary K S Shan was brutally murdered while on his way home. The back-to-back killings in Alappuzha on December 18-19 last year had rocked the coastal district and led to imposition of prohibitory orders there for a couple of days.