The Kerala Government has been directed by the Supreme Court (SC), today, to restore ex- Director General of Police (DGP) TP Senkumar, saying he was removed from the post “randomly”.

The Central Administrative Tribunals (CAT) had not found any fault with the state government’s decision to remove Senkumar from the post of the state police chief, and in turn supported the decision. The apex court now set aside the order of the Kerala High court (HC).

A bench comprising Justices MB Lokur and Deepak Gupta said, “We direct reinstatement of DGP TP Senkumar.” The Left Democratic Front (LDF) Party led by Pinarayi Vijayan, was responsible for the removal of the DGP and Senkumar has challenged it in the apex court. Senkumar alleged that he was removed from the post of DGP, due to political vengeance. He was shunted for the honest investigation in the murders of Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) founder TP Chandrasekharan and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) youth activist Abdul Shukoor, in which Communist Party of India (Marxist) leaders were involved.

Earlier, the CAT and the HC had rejected Senkumar’s plea challenging the LDF Government’s decision. According to Senkumar, the investigation had caused the Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPI - M) leadership in Kerala to turn against him. The DGP was removed from his post, in violation of the norms that the State police chief should have a fixed tenure of atleast two years. Senkumar also cited that the frequent transfers of IPS officers in Kerala are taking place, after the LDF came into power. The transfers were made without following the norms, mentioned by the SC and prescribed in the Police Act. He further claimed that around 40 such illegal transfers were made by the LDF government in a period of nine months. None of the IPS officers were approaching the court, after his pleas were rejected by the CAT and HC.

On April 11, the Kerala Government, defended its decision in the apex court to remove Senkumar, saying he had protected erring police officials, who were involved in the fire tragedy of the Puttingal temple in 2016, which killed about 110 people. The State Government had told the apex court that, the transfer of the DGP, was not a punishment for the incident, but it was for how he handled the fallout of the tragedy.

The ghastly incident occurred on April 10 last year, during Senkumar’s reign. After a fireworks display went amiss, there was a huge explosion leading to a blaze in the temple in Kollam district. Around 110 people had died, and more than 300 were injured in the incident.

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