Kerala: Loknath Behera returns as police chief

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Loknath Behera has been reappointed as the state police chief as Mr T.P. Senkumar retires from service on Friday. Mr Behera, who is currently serving as Vigilance director, will head the state police for the second term after a short break of nearly two months. The government is yet to get a replacement for him as Vigilance director. The names of Fire and Rescue Services director-general A. Hemachandran and DGP Modernisation N.C. Asthana are doing the rounds.

The cabinet on Wednesday decided to reappoint Mr Behera by overlooking the seniority of his IPS batch mate (1985) Jacob Thomas. Another senior officer Arunkumar Sinha (senior) of 1984 batch is now serving on central deputation at Indian embassy in the US. Excise commissioner Rishiraj Singh of 1985 batch was another option for the government.

Mr Behera was initially posted as state police chief on June 1, 2016 shunting out Mr Senkumar immediately after the Pinarayi Vijayan government came to power. The provocation for the CPM-led government to remove Mr Senkumar was alleged to be the grudge over the probe into RMP leader T.P. Chandrasekharan's murder case involving CPM leaders while he was ADGP Intelligence.

After a year-long legal battle, the Supreme Court ordered on May 24 the reinstatement of Mr Senkumar. Subsequently, he began his second term of hardly two months as police chief from May 6. The two months in office of Mr Senkumar were marked by the differences with ADGP headquarters Tomin Thachankary. Mr. Thachankary even complained to the government that Mr Senkumar had tried to assault him. There were also allegations that the government was trying to frame adverse reports against Mr Senkumar to scuttle his appointment as Kerala Administrative Tribunal member. The government also scrapped Mr Senkumar's decision to remove a junior superintendent at confidential section T-branch in police headquarters and also transferred his gunman Anilkumar. A row over Mr Behera prescribing a specific company's paint for all police stations, circle inspector offices and DySP offices also occurred during this period.

Expressing his thanks to the government, Mr. Behera said that he was not bothered of controversies. "While heading the police headquarters, there might be controversies. Those won't bother me. There might be change in priority of the police force when the police chief changes. I also hope to take forward many initiatives taken while serving as state police chief earlier," he told reporters.

Mr Behera, who is a native of Odisha, will be in service till June, 2021. He had earlier served with the CBI and the National Investigation Agency and probed many high-profile scams, including Purulia arms drop case. Mr. Jacob Thomas, who called on Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday, said that there was nothing wrong in overlooking seniority. "Seniority is just securing some more marks in the examination and getting a better rank," he told reporters. He added that he could do many good things serving as director-general, Institute of Management in Government.