A petition has been filed in the Kerala High Court to protect DCP Chaitra Teresa John who had conducted a raid on the Thiruvananthapuram CPI(M) office to nab a few DYFI workers who had vandalised a police station.
The petition filed by Kochi based Public Eye has also moved the High Court against the immunity claimed by political parties against police raids as part of any inquiry, according to reports.
The raid on the CPI(M) office took place on January 24 to nab DYFI workers who threw stones at the Medical College Police Station. But the petition stated that none of the accused could be nabbed from the raid as news about it had already been leaked out. The petition also demanded that the accused DYFI workers be arrested soon and that action be taken against police officers who leaked the raid information.
On January 23, a few DYFI workers had visited the Medical College station to visit two accused in a POCSO case and were being held in the station. (The accused were not DYFI workers). When the police officers refused to allow the workers to visit the POCSO accused, an altercation erupted and the DYFI workers pelted stones at the station, resulting in damaged worth Rs 2,000.
DCP Chaitra did a midnight raid on the CPI(M) DC office at midnight on January 24 to nab the workers. However, the attempt did not go as planned as all the accused were missing.
Following this, the government withdrew the additional responsibilities that Chaitra had been given and transferred her to the women’s cell.
An internal probe had been ordered by DGP Loknath Behera and ADGP Manoj Abraham. The probe in its report had cleared Chaitra of all charges even stating that it was within her powers to raid the office of a party.
CM Pinarayi Vijayan has stated that the issue had to be taken seriously and so does action against the DC, as a complaint had been filed from the CPI(M) office
Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, CPI(M) state secretary had called the raid a publicity stunt and had questioned why none of the accused were nabbed by the DCP post the raid.