Kerala CM Vijayan announces probe into allegations against top cops

The Chief Minister said that the issues that have arisen will be addressed with the utmost seriousness, and any breach of discipline within the police force will not be tolerated at any cost.

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday announced a high-level probe by a top ranking officer into the grave allegations raised by ruling LDF MLA P V Anvar against some senior IPS officers in the state.

The alleged shady deals of a senior IPS officer and CM's political secretary are snowballing into a political row with the opposition parties demanding Vijayan to step down and face probe into the allegations against his office.

Even as the CM announced a probe against ADGP (law and order) M R Ajithkumar by a team led by State Police Chief Sheikh Darvesh Saheb, the opposition Congress and BJP said that Vijayan, who is also holding the home portfolio, should take responsibility for the serious allegations raised by a ruling-front MLA .

Left-front MLA P V Anvar raised a series of allegations ranging from nexus with gold smuggling racket to tapping of phones of ministers, politicians and journalists against Ajithkumar and accused him of acting as per instruction of CM's political secretary P Sasi.

Speaking at a public function on Monday, the Vijayan said that a high-level probe would be initiated into the allegations that have come up against senior police officers. A higher rank police officer will probe into the allegations, he added while Ajithkumar was also present on the dais.

Ajithkumar later told reporters that he himself had sought a probe into the allegations to bring out the facts.

As the CM only highlighted the allegations against the IPS officer, the opposition parties demanded that action should also be taken against the CM's political secretary Sasi as the left-front MLA raised serious allegations against him too.

Opposition leader V D Satheesan of the Congress demanded Vijayan to step down and face a CBI probe into the allegations against his office. BJP state president K Surendran also said that Pinarayi Vijayan did not have the moral right to remain in the office.

The fresh controversies over Ajithkumar came up at a time when there was widespread allegation that he was acting like a 'super DGP' by overlooking the state police chief Sheikh Darvesh Saheb on many matters. He had earlier courted controversies for allegedly trying to influence those involved in the gold smuggling allegations linked to Pinarayi Vijayan's office and family.

Anvar, who is a CPI(M)-backed independent MLA, flayed that Ajithkumar was even acting like fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and was involved in a murder related to gold smuggling through the Kozhikode airport. He also said that the IPS officer was constructing a 'palatial' house in Thiruvananthapuram.

Meanwhile, Pathanamthitta district police chief Sujith Das, who also faced allegations of smuggling tree from camp office while serving in Malappuram, is also likely to face disciplinary action.