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Kerala Police HQ in extremists’ grip: BJP
Calling for an NIA probe into the scandal regarding the move of the Kerala Police (Intelligence) to monitor the email accounts of 258 Muslim personalities and institutions and ten others, the State BJP on Saturday alleged that the Kerala Police headquarters was in the grip of extremists.
Alleging that Sub-Inspector S Biju of the Hi-Tech Inquiry Cell of the Kerala Police, who was suspended last week for leaking out to the media secret documents regarding the email-surveillance, had extremist connections, State BJP general secretary K Surendran demanded an explanation from the Government on who had posted him in the hi-tech cell.
Surendran told the media in Kozhikode that the actual name of the SI was Biju Saleem and that he used to be a permanent member in the camp of PDP chairman Abdul Nasser Madani before his arrest in the Bangalore bombings case. After Madani’s arrest, Biju had been working in association with Islamist groups like Jama’at-e-Islami, he said.
The BJP leader asked how such a man could get a posting in the security-intensive Hi-Tech Cell of the Intelligence section of the police. “Many top police officials are aware of this posting .This shows that extremists have immense influence over people at the very top of the Kerala Police and at the police headquarters,” he said.
Surendran wanted Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Director General of Police Jacob Punnoose to explain how a sub-inspector with extremist connections could get a posting in such a sensitive section. “This is a serious matter. The Chief Minister and the DGP cannot wash their hands off this,” he said.
SI Biju was suspended from service on January 24 after it was found that he had leaked out to the media “forged copies” of an official letter that asked email service providers for login details of 258 Muslim personalities and institutions. The action was taken against Biju on the basis of an inquiry report.
The Congress-led UDF Government had faced a lot of embarrassment in the past days after a weekly magazine run by the Jama’at-e-Islami published a detailed report on the snooping by the police’s Intelligence wing on the email accounts of 258 Muslims and ten others, who could have had connections with banned Islamist outfit, SIMI.
The list of persons and institutions sent by the Hi-Tech Inquiry Cell had included names of some widely respected Muslim leaders, businessmen and professionals and this caused further problems for the Government as allegations came up that the surveillance had connections with the intra-party politics of the Muslim League, a major partner in the ruling coalition.
In his urgency to wriggle out of the scandal in the face of attacks from “secularists”, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said that the magazine had “conspiratorially” avoided publishing the identities of the ten non-Muslims who figured in the list and alleged that the Jama’at-e-Islami was trying to create communal tension in the society.
He also said that the reference in the letter to SIMI connection was an error committed by the Superintendent of Police who drafted it. The Government then decided to initiate action against the magazine but Chandy later said there would be no such move but the Jama’at-e-Islami should correct itself.
Calling for an NIA probe into the scandal regarding the move of the Kerala Police (Intelligence) to monitor the email accounts of 258 Muslim personalities and institutions and ten others, the State BJP on Saturday alleged that the Kerala Police headquarters was in the grip of extremists.
Alleging that Sub-Inspector S Biju of the Hi-Tech Inquiry Cell of the Kerala Police, who was suspended last week for leaking out to the media secret documents regarding the email-surveillance, had extremist connections, State BJP general secretary K Surendran demanded an explanation from the Government on who had posted him in the hi-tech cell.
Surendran told the media in Kozhikode that the actual name of the SI was Biju Saleem and that he used to be a permanent member in the camp of PDP chairman Abdul Nasser Madani before his arrest in the Bangalore bombings case. After Madani’s arrest, Biju had been working in association with Islamist groups like Jama’at-e-Islami, he said.
The BJP leader asked how such a man could get a posting in the security-intensive Hi-Tech Cell of the Intelligence section of the police. “Many top police officials are aware of this posting .This shows that extremists have immense influence over people at the very top of the Kerala Police and at the police headquarters,” he said.
Surendran wanted Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Director General of Police Jacob Punnoose to explain how a sub-inspector with extremist connections could get a posting in such a sensitive section. “This is a serious matter. The Chief Minister and the DGP cannot wash their hands off this,” he said.
SI Biju was suspended from service on January 24 after it was found that he had leaked out to the media “forged copies” of an official letter that asked email service providers for login details of 258 Muslim personalities and institutions. The action was taken against Biju on the basis of an inquiry report.
The Congress-led UDF Government had faced a lot of embarrassment in the past days after a weekly magazine run by the Jama’at-e-Islami published a detailed report on the snooping by the police’s Intelligence wing on the email accounts of 258 Muslims and ten others, who could have had connections with banned Islamist outfit, SIMI.
The list of persons and institutions sent by the Hi-Tech Inquiry Cell had included names of some widely respected Muslim leaders, businessmen and professionals and this caused further problems for the Government as allegations came up that the surveillance had connections with the intra-party politics of the Muslim League, a major partner in the ruling coalition.
In his urgency to wriggle out of the scandal in the face of attacks from “secularists”, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said that the magazine had “conspiratorially” avoided publishing the identities of the ten non-Muslims who figured in the list and alleged that the Jama’at-e-Islami was trying to create communal tension in the society.
He also said that the reference in the letter to SIMI connection was an error committed by the Superintendent of Police who drafted it. The Government then decided to initiate action against the magazine but Chandy later said there would be no such move but the Jama’at-e-Islami should correct itself.
