Cases against Nizam not being soft-pedalled: DGP

Kochi: A senior police official on Thursday denied media reports that the criminal cases against Kerala businessman Muhammed Nizam, who had allegedly mowed a security guard to death, were being soft-pedalled.

Director General of Prosecutions T Asaf Ali said the reports appearing in a section of the media in this regard were totally "false and baseless" and devoid of truth.

There had been reports regarding quashing of serious offences against Nisham as his petitions were filed through Advocate General's private office.

He clarified that the prosecutors were following the directions of the Supreme Court in Gyan Singh's case that criminal cases, having predominantly personal nature, can be settled by courts.

"The prosecutors act independently and without favour and are never concerned about who the counsels of the opposite party are," he said.

Nizam had allegedly roughed up the security guard and then dragged him to a wall of a parking lot and ran him over with his car for delay in opening the gate of the apartment complex allegedly in an inebriated state.

The guard battled for his life for 18 days and succumbed to injuries on February 16.

Police had earlier booked Nizam for posting photographs of his seven-year-old son driving a Ferrari on a social networking website.