Cong takes political campaign to residential quarters of top cops; IPS Association condemns move

The IPS Association's Kerala chapter on Wednesday condemned a media-covered visit of Congress leaders to an area housing residences of senior police officers as part of a political campaign after a CAG report flagged that funds were diverted to build "villas" for the police top brass.

The IPS Association said the visit was "a new low" and an attempt to "malign senior police officers and to cause disaffection among various ranks".

State Congress chief Mullappally Ramachandran, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Ramesh Chennithala and some other leaders of the opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) visited the residential area to "inspect the villas" as part of the political campaign.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), in its recent report, had alleged that state police chief Loknath Behera diverted Rs 2.81 crore meant for construction of upper subordinate staff quarters for building villas for high-ranking officials.

The opposition parties also trained their guns at the Left Democratic Front government after the CAG report had flagged certain irregularities in police department with regard to missing bullets, rifles and diversion of funds.

However, the home secretary on Wednesday gave clean chit to the department saying the rifles were not missing.

Criticising the Congress leaders' visit, the IPS Association said it was "quite unfortunate" to witness the recent personal attacks levelled against certain senior police officers by some individuals.

"Such attempts reached a new low today when a group of individuals converged at the official residences of some police officers, having no contextual relevance, and had shown the senior police leadership, in general, in bad light through their words which were covered in the media along with the visuals of official residences of the police officers," a resolution adopted by the IPS Association's Kerala chapter read.

The association said the "motivated act of certain individuals", without even respecting the privacy of the home and families of senior officers, was "totally deplorable".

"The IPS Association, Kerala Chapter hereby strongly condemns this act of certain individuals attempting to malign senior police officers and to cause disaffection among various ranks of police personnel as well," the resolution said.