Govt cannot hide its ugly face by putting up ads: Sudheeran

The State government cannot conceal its “ugly face” by putting up advertisements spending crores of rupees to mark its second year in power, former Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president V.M. Sudheeran has said.

Opening a district-level protest outside the civil station here on Tuesday against ‘murder politics’ and ‘custodial deaths’, he said the arrest of senior CPI(M) leaders, who he alleged were directly involved in conspiracies, was necessary to put an end to political murders. Mr. Sudheeran said both Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were the embodiment of intolerance. The behaviour of BJP and CPI(M) activists was worse than criminals, he said.

Custodial deaths

The series of custodial deaths revealed the incompetence of the Home Department.

The government was reluctant to recommend a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the murder of Sreejith of Varappuzha as it wanted to protect senior police officials involved in the crime, alleged Mr. Sudheeran.

Instead of celebrating the second anniversary of the Left Democratic Front government, Mr. Vijayan should resign as he had turned out to be a model of governance failure, the Congress leader said. Mr. Sudheeran and other district leaders of the United Democratic Front were arrested later.

Meanwhile, after visiting Anoop of Atholy, who has been allegedly tortured by the police recently, the former KPCC president alleged that the police were behaving like “goondas”.