Congress hails Supreme Court verdict, flays LDF government

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress leaders have hailed the Supreme Court verdict reinstating former DGP T. P. Senkumar and come down heavily on the LDF government for the manner in which he was shunted out. "Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has no right to continue in office and should immediately step down," said Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala. “The order is a chargesheet against the LDF government and its first decision has turned out to be a huge blow to it,” he added.

Former chief minister Oommen Chandy said Mr Senkumar had received justice and added that his  performance during the UDF government's tenure was excellent. "When the LDF Government came to power,  the new investigation team constituted to look into the Puttingal fire tragedy continued what was already being done by its predecessors. Both the teams conducted foolproof investigations and the culprits were brought before the law,"  said Mr Chandy. He maintained that neither the initial investigation team nor the then DGP had erred in their work. Former home minister Thiruvanachoor Radhakrishnan felt that the LDF government will try every trick to keep Mr Senkumar out of his former post.

The Supreme Court has ordered that  the DGP who is in charge of law and order should be allowed to continue in office at least for two years. This has  come as a huge blow to the Left government, he said. "I feel that the LDF government would resort to nasty tricks not to reinstate  Senkumar. He was shunted out for no reason," he said. The excuses cited to remove Senkumar from office--the Puttingal fireworks tragedy and the Jisha murder case probes--did not stand in the court of law. In both the cases there have been separate investigating teams and  Senkumar was removed without seeking the views of those  teams.  The government's intention  was to remove  Senkumar from office somehow, he said.