Thiruvananthapuram: If he was told what happened in the Assembly on Wednesday, February 12, jailed killer Chenthamara would have had a glint of wicked smile on his face.
It was after a long time that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan looked seriously provoked inside the Assembly. Muslim League’s Mannarkkad MLA N Samsudheen, citing the murders committed by Chenthamara, had moved an adjournment motion seeking a discussion on what he termed the “incompetence” of Kerala Police.
It was on January 27 that Chenthamara hacked Sudhakaran to death. Sudhakaran’s mother Lakshmi who rushed to protect her son was also given the same treatment. Chenthamara was on bail from the Viyyur Central Jail where he was serving a sentence for killing Sudhakaran’s wife Sajitha in 2019.
Samsudheen kept challenging the CM. “This man had no right to enter the Nenmara panchayat limits. Yet he had lived near Sudhakaran’s house for one-and-a-half months. What was your police doing,” he said. Samsudheen kept at it. “This man had in an intimidating manner brandished his freshly sharpened machete at the locals and even publicly bragged that he would use it to kill five people. What was your police doing,” Shamsudheen asked.
There was even more. “Sudhakaran’s daughter Akhila had gone to the police station and said she feared for the lives of her family members. A neighbour of Sudhakaran (Pushpa) had also filed a complaint with the police saying Chenthamara had threatened to kill her. What did your police do,” Samsudheen said.
After this when the CM got up to speak, what sounded like feeble sounds of mockery from the opposition side was enough to cause Pinarayi to fix his rivals a menacing stare. It is usual for some noise to be heard from the opposition benches when the CM stands up to speak but it is standard practice for Pinarayi to just ignore them. The sounds will still down on its own.
But on Wednesday the CM looked a bit troubled by what Samsudheen said. “Now that the member (Samsudheen) has failed to present his case effectively are you trying to unsettle me by making noises,” Pinarayi said. Even opposition leader V D Satheesan sounded amused. “Why should you be provoked for this,” he was heard asking.
The CM felt that the opposition was taking things a bit too far. “Do you think I am here to justify Chenthamara? We have done everything to nab him and put him behind bars,” the CM said. He also admitted that there was negligence on the part of the police. “After they had received the complaint, they should have handled the case in a more serious manner. The police were aware of the possibility of the crime, and should have acted,” the CM said. The Nenmara Police Inspector Mahendra Simhan was suspended pending enquiry for alleged negligence and dereliction of duty.
Nonetheless, Pinarayi suggested that the police have been restricted by law. “There are many who are granted bail by courts and these people will have to strictly adhere to bail conditions. Some violate these conditions. Fact is, once there is a violation, there is nothing that the police could do except inform the court. (In this case, the police had summoned Chenthamra to the station and warned him not to violate bail conditions.) The police have no authority to arrest a person who had violated bail conditions,” he said and threw a tricky poser at the opposition: “Would you agree to grant police such sweeping authority? The question of giving powers to police in bail-related cases should be seen in totality and not from the angle of this case alone.”
To this the opposition leader had one query. “This man had violated bail conditions, was living near the house of the people he had threatened to kill, and to top it all, the police had received complaints from the daughter of the man who was killed. What did your police do? What steps did they take to cancel Chenthamara’s bail? Was the court informed?”
Since Satheesan was giving his walk out speech, the CM did not get an opportunity to respond to him.