Veteran CPI(M) leader VS Achuthanandan has come down heavily on the Kerala Police Department in the wake of the brutal attack on a family in Fort Kochi, as well as the detention of Kamal C Chavara on sedition charges for reported insult of the national anthem.
On the night of 14 December, a couple of youngsters who were hanging out with their family at the Fort Kochi beach were taken into custody and beaten up by the police. Fort Kochi sub-inspector Dwijesh S was suspended on Friday in this regard.
In his complaint, Sanish -a local CPI(M) leader- had accused the police of brutally beating him, his pregnant wife and relative Asif.
In a statement to the media, Achuthanandan insisted that the police officer responsible for the same should be dismissed from the service, and a case for attempt to murder should be filed against him.
“Officers who attack a pregnant woman and a one and a half-year old child should not be tolerated in Kerala police. The morale of the police force should not be maintained by the suppression of the poor. This is the era of the LDF, not that of ‘urutti kola’ (rolling of a heavy wooden log over the body of the accused -a popular torture method used by the police in olden days).”
Achuthanandan also went on to criticize the sedition charges against writer Kamal C Chavara. The writer was detained by the police on Sunday following a complaint by Yuva Morcha activists claiming that he had insulted the national anthem in his latest book.
Writers in Kerala -the communist veteran averred- should not have to face experiences similar to that of rationalists Govind Pansare and Kalburgi who lost their lives to fundamentalist forces.
“It is being said that the police threatened to break Kamal’s back. The police say that the case was registered based on the complaint made by Yuva Morcha activists to the state DGP. Such acts would only make people believe that the government is moving on to a fascist mode of regime,” he said.
“The morale of such police officers should be broken to ensure that the morale of the entire state police force increases,” he opined.
The leader was taking an apparent dig at state Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for his earlier statement of how the Left government would do nothing to harm the morale of the police in Kerala in the backdrop of the reported fake encounter killing of two Maoists in the Nilambur forest.