How can you say only CBI can crack Gauri case? Our cops crack 99% cases: Reddy
Veteran Congressman R. Ramalinga Reddy, considered a soft-spoken politician, has taken over the hot seat of home minister. Less than 48 hours after he took over, the city witnessed the gruesome murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh which shook the conscience of the country. In a free-wheeling interview with Deccan Chronicle, Mr Reddy spoke about various issues-from taking over the mantle to cracking the Gauri murder case. Here are excerpts from the interview.
You had done a good job as transport minister. Suddenly your portfolio was changed. Do you feel sad?
Not really. It is quite common, there’s nothing unusual.
Did the Chief Minister discuss this with you? One version is that you wanted to retain the transport portfolio besides taking up the responsibility of home.
He told me about this a week back. It is not true that I insisted I would keep the transport portfolio besides taking up the new responsibility. I have never asked for any portfolio, I have followed this tradition since 1994. Whatever portfolio the CM gave me, I took it up.
Do you feel bad? The credit for what you did in the transport department may go to the new minister?
No. Why should I? Ramalinga Reddy as an individual cannot win the election without the Congress party. It is the Congress which gave me this opportunity. So the credit should go to the party, not me.
The police department seems to be having a unique problem. The power to transfer IPS officers is with the CM. Then how will the home minister function?
Not only in the police wing, in all other departments, the power to transfer IAS and IPS officers is vested with the CM only. For instance, under the transport department, I had KSRTC which had four or five IAS and IPS officers. Once they are posted, they have to take commands from the minister.
Unlike other departments, the police department has the highest central cadre officers (IPS) from top to bottom. A large section of officers constantly lobby for plum posts or they are transferred frequently for political reasons. For instance, Bengaluru city had four commissioners in four years!
City commissioner is a ADGP rank post. What happens is sometimes, the officer comes to this post at a stage when he is due for promotion. Once they get promoted, they move on. That’s why when you look at it from outside, it looks like frequent transfers.
But the officers’ focus seem to be on transfers and getting key posts. How can citizens expect safety and security from these officers?
You know the city has so many police stations. From the lower to middle level, we have so many officers working here. So, they do a professional job. As for city police commissioner, he may have worked in the city in different capacities. For instance the incumbent, Suneel Kumar, knows the city very well because in the past, he had worked here.
Irrespective of political parties which form governments, the chief minister keeps the intelligence wing with him. On several occasions, intelligence failure led to crimes but people blame only the home minister, not the chief minister. Is it fair?
Not really. The home minister will get almost all the inputs that the CM gets. The intelligence wing keeps track of many activities be it social movements, rallies and farmer agitations. Sometimes, organised crimes cannot be tracked because the plot might be hatched outside the state's border. Under such circumstances, it is virtually impossible to track them.
Moving on, a year-and-a-half ago, the cabinet took a decision to drop cases filed against the minority community and a few organisations. The police now claim to have cracked the murder cases of RSS activist Sharat Madiwala and the Mysuru Kyatamaranalli case. In both cases, the arrested belong to one organisation. In hindsight, do you regret the cabinet decision?
The cabinet took a wise decision. But before that, the cabinet constituted a sub-committee which vetted the cases and their merits. See, farmers agitating on the Cauvery issue, political agitations, the Tipu Sultan agitation are some of the cases which we said should be dropped. Accordingly, we took a decision. Cases serious in nature have not been dropped. For instance, the cases involving murder charges or destruction of public property would not be dropped.
The police feel the pattern in the Gauri Lankesh murder case is similar to that of Kalburgi murder. The state government did not hand over the Kalburgi murder case to the CBI. But you are ready to give the Gauri case to CBI. Why?
No, in Kalburgi’s case, his family did not want a CBI probe. In Gauri’s case, what we said was we are open to a CBI probe.
There is a perception gaining ground that the investigation seems to be going nowhere. If you hand over the case to the CBI now and the central agency fails to crack the case before the polls, you could go around the state and blame the CBI, isn’t it?
Why? Didn’t we give the lottery case to CBI? If we give all the cases to CBI, what will our police officers do? We have competent officers and they do justice to their work. Moreover, the Dhabholkar case was handed over to CBI in 2013. Four years have passed and nothing has happened. One individual belonging to Sanatana Samsthe was arrested but the one who pulled the trigger is still at large. How can you say that CBI can crack the case? Our police crack 99 per cent cases.
After the Gauri case, writers and intellectuals who were with the Congress government all these four years, seem to have developed a trust deficit.
I can understand their growing anxiety. What they feel is: if the perpetrators of the Kalburgi murder had been brought to book, this incident would not have happened. Therefore, we constituted a SIT in no time. We genuinely want to crack this case and book the perpetrators.
Finally, are you confident that you can discharge your duty free of any influence?
(smile) Why? Do you have any doubt?
The buzz in Vidhana Soudha is that Mr Kempaiah (the home minister’s advisor) will override you?
He is a security advisor. He can give suggestions. Along with his inputs, I will take the advice and suggestions from retired officials and opposition leaders and will then take decisions. What you said is a misconception. A minister is a minister. No one can take away his power. So, don't worry, I will discharge my duties freely.
