Top level reshuffle in state Police force

Thiruvananthapuram: In a top level reshuffle in the state Police force, the new CPI-M led LDF government has shifted Director General of Police T P Senkumar and appointed senior IPS officer Loknath Behera in his place.

Prior to this, Behera, who had worked in the CBI and the NIA, was the Commandant General of Fire and Rescue Services.

Soon after the reshuffle, Senkumar in a Facebook post indicated his discontent on his transfer, saying during the last 35 years he had always kept honesty, integrity and justice and a special care for the downtrodden.

"I still have all my vertebras intact. I have never appeased anybody for any posting. I have always tried to be impartial and fair", he said.

Senior IPS officer and Kerala Police Housing and Construction Corporation Ltd Managing Director Jacob Thomas has been made the Director of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB), replacing IPS officer N Shankar Reddy, official sources in the Chief Minister's Office said today.

Thomas was at loggerheads with the previous UDF government while being the Director of Fire and Rescue Services and also as the ADGP of VACB during the probe into the bar bribery case connected with former finance minister K M Mani.

He had even openly criticised then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and the government had sought an explanation from him for his action.

The changes in police force have been effected days after the LDF took over the reins of the state after its victory in the May 16 Assembly elections.

One of the LDF's planks in the poll campaign was the "deteriorating" law and order situation in the state and it had attacked the police over the brutal rape and murder of Dalit law student at her home in Perumbavoor on April 28.

Senkumar also said in the post that he had never asked any subordinate officer to do anything illegal.

"This may be my last Facebook post as SPC (State Police Chief) of Kerala. This Facebook page was created with an intention to have continuous and mutual beneficial interaction," he said.

"Due to some of the exigencies, this may not have been fully possible. However, I have to thank you for all the suggestions and reactions. I can leave this place with full satisfaction that in my entire service career I have never asked any subordinate officer to do anything illegal," he added.