New Kerala DGP A Compromise Candidate Of Left Front And Union Government: KC Venugopal
AICC’s K.C. Venugopal alleges a CPI(M)-BJP deal in Kerala police chief’s appointment, citing Ravada Chandrasekhar’s past PM security role and the rejection of top contender Nitin Agarwal.
Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 1 (PTI) AICC general secretary K C Venugopal on Tuesday alleged that Ravada Chandrasekhar was appointed as the new Kerala police chief as part of a deal between the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala and the BJP government at the Centre.
“There is no doubt that the new DGP is the compromise candidate of the Left Front government and the central government,” he told reporters in Kannur.
Venugopal said Chandrasekhar was made the secretary of the Prime Minister's security department only two weeks ago. Yet the central government agreed to make him the Kerala DGP.
“It is clear that a deal has been made between the Centre and the state to get rid of Nitin Agarwal, who was number one in the list, but not in the central government’s good list,” he said.
He said the LDF government in Kerala owed an explanation to its rank and file and the family of martyrs for all the allegations made by the CPI(M) regarding the 1994 Koothuparamba firing in which five of its youth activists were killed.
Ravada Chandrasekhar, then Thalassery ASP, was one of the accused in the case registered by the subsequent LDF government against then Cooperation Minister M V Raghavan and the police officials involved in the incident.
Venugopal said the allegations the CPI(M) made against Chandrasekhar are still in the public domain.
Venugopal alleged that there was a mystery in the U-turn of the CPI(M) on the issue. Chandrashekhar was made the DGP by rejecting ‘honest’ police officers for the sake of the Modi government, he charged.
He said the CPI(M)’s own cadre will question the appointment of Chandrasekhar as they had been made to believe that the police officer was one of those responsible for the firing.
“The CPI(M) should clarify whether it castigated an officer without any facts,” Venugopal said.
Opposition Leader in the Kerala assembly V D Satheesan, however, had downplayed the appointment of Chandrasekhar on Monday, saying the officer was only doing his duty trying to save the life of a minister from a hostile crowd.
CPI(M) Kerala state secretary M V Govindan also justified the government’s decision, stating the police officer’s appointment was based on merit.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)
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