Kevin murder rocks Kerala Assembly

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Assembly session that began on Monday was disrupted with the Opposition  demanding a CBI probe into the abduction and murder of Kevin P. Joseph of Kottayam. The UDF MLAs trooped to the well of the House shouting slogans on the police lapses after  Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan denied  permission for an adjournment motion. Even as Chief Minister  Pinarayi Vijayan said that the government would ensure stringent action against the guilty police officials, Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala demanded that the probe should be handed over to the CBI.

Mr Vijayan  said that the government was aware of the initial lapses of the police in handling the case and hence swift actions were taken against the  officials found prima facie responsible. He also said that the honour killing  should have never happened in the state and that the entire society should resist such acts. He  denied the allegations raised by Congress leader Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan that the post-mortem was conducted at Kottayam Medical College Hospital by a junior doctor. The chief minister said  the post-mortem was done at Kottayam  as per the wish of Kevin’s relatives and it was done by a team of doctors. Kerala Congress (B) MLA K.B. Ganesh Kumar recalled that while the post-mortem was progressing, Mr. Thiruvanchoor had told the media that their demands had been met.

Mr. Chennithala said  there were a series of incidents of police lapses after the LDF came to power and asked the  government to seriously examine the reason for this.   In two years, the  district police chiefs were shifted about five times, he said. The UDF MLAs raised banners and shouted slogans on the police lapses during the LDF rule. Amidst  noisy scenes, the speaker rushed through the other proceedings  and adjourned the House for the day.