HC dismisses Senkumar’s plea to expunge criticism

KOCHI: The high court on Thursday dismissed ADGP T P Senkumar’s plea for expunging the observation against him following his ‘casteist’ remark in the case involving actor Kalabhavan Mani.
Dismissing a petition filed by the ADGP, Justice B Kemal Pasha said in the order, “It is a pity that still being a police officer in the higher ups of the Kerala Police, the petitioner is entertaining a view that police is discriminating the persons of the higher strata and the lower strata in the society in the case of investigation.Either he will have to stop his job or he will have to see such discrimination should not happen in the police force.”
Addressing the state conference of police association at Kollam in May 2013, the ADGP had reportedly said that actors like Mammootty, Mohanlal, Jayaram or Dileep would not have suffered the same fate as Mani. The media had also reported the ADGP as saying that police is showing discrimination between members of the upper and lower strata of the society while investigating cases.
The ADGP’s comments were pointed out to the court during the hearing of a petition filed by forest officials questioning the registration of a case against them on Mani’s complaint. The court had said in the order that a responsible police officer is not expected to make such statements in public, regarding a pending case.
Through a petition, the ADGP then sought to remove that observation. Declining to agree with the ADGP’s views regarding discrimination, the court said on Thursday that if police is discriminating one person from another, it is the fault of the police and that the criminal justice dispensing system cannot be said to be at fault.
Further, the court pointed out that the criminal justice dispensing system also includes prosecution, court, and correctional institutions as its organs. On an appreciation, it cannot be said that the system is at fault, whereas, the fault lies in the persons working in the system. If police is discriminating, it is the fault of police and not the system as such. The ADGP is also responsible for the fault by police and it is for him, as a senior police officer, to take action against erring police officers, the court said.