The Supreme Court today asked the Kerala government to file a detailed affidavit regarding the present status of the issues relating to former state DGP T P Senkumar who has alleged that his transfer was a clear case of "political vendetta".
"During the course of the hearing, it appears to us that it may be necessary for the state of Kerala to file a detailed affidavit giving the present status of all issues," a bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Sanjay Kishan Kaul said.
Senior advocate Harish Salve, representing Kerala, told the bench that he will file the affidavit within a week after which the court listed the matter for hearing on April 10.
On March 6, the counsel representing the former DGP had told the court that his client has an unblemished career and the state government had not consulted the state security council before transferring him from the top post and appointing him as the head of the state's police housing corporation.
Senkumar "has an outstanding and unblemished career. Also the state government did not consult the state security council before transferring the top cop of the state," he had argued, adding that other than Senkumar, 90 other police officers were also transferred or shifted from their post after the present government took charge.
He has filed the appeal against the Kerala High Court's verdict that had upheld the Central Administrative Tribunal's order.
The CAT had not found any fault with the decision of the LDF government's 2016 decision to transfer Senkumar from the post of the director general of police to the post of chairman and managing director of Kerala Police Housing and Construction Corporation.
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Senkumar, in his appeal, has said his transfer was an act of political vendetta as he had probed various political murders involving the ruling party.
"The high court failed to take into consideration the fact that in a prominent murder case of 2012, where a local leader T P Chandrashekharan was killed wherein after investigation, helped by the petitioner as ADGP, several party members and leaders of the political party forming the present government were held guilty and therein sentenced to imprisonment.
"That also in 2012, in yet another murder case of Ariyil Shukoor, a local leader, certain members and leaders of the political party forming the present government of the state were named as accused persons. The investigation was helped by the petitioner also," he has said.
"As a result of political vendetta against the petitioner, the respondent state has therefore taken the present decision to remove the petitioner from the post of the state police chief," he has claimed.
Senkumar was transferred on the ground of his alleged inaction in the infamous Jisha murder case and Puttingal fire works tragedy.