The Opposition on Monday brought up a slew of new charges of corruption against the police.
Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala said in Kottayam that benamis of ‘higher-ups in the government’ owned Galaxion, the firm contracted by Keltron to execute the Central Intrusion Monitoring System (CIMS).
Mr. Chennithala said he would reveal more about the firm’s political connections soon. He described the CIMS as a bid by the government to privatise police functioning. Only well-heeled persons could rig their homes and offices to the automated intrusion response system by making a down payment of ₹80,000. The police charged subscribers with a monthly fee of ₹5,000.
Charge against SPC
He alleged that State Police Chief Loknath Behera had transferred the task of marketing the CIMS scheme from Keltron to District Police Chiefs (DPC). Mr. Behera had ‘directed’ the DPCs to enlist at least 1,000 people in their respective jurisdictions into the project. The resulting cash flow would have benefited Glaxion hugely with scant benefit for Keltron or the police, he said.
The company was registered in 2016 with a paid-up capital of ₹10 lakhs. It had no previous expertise handling a project on the scale of CIMS. The Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs had blacklisted two directors of the firm, Mr. Chennithala alleged.
He said that the police had benefited a car maker by acquiring 200 ‘outdated’ vans having an outdated emission standard. By some accounts, the latest fleet of vehicles flagged off by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan recently included those that had remained submerged for days in the previous year’s floods. The outmoded vans were languishing in parking lots with no takers when the police helped the vendor by buying them up in bulk using public funds.
Mr. Chennithala alleged corruption in the procurement of security equipment for Sabarimala. The CAG had flagged corruption in the utilisation of modernisation funds amounting to ₹151 crore. He dared the government to order an inquiry.
CBI probe sought
Special Correspondent writes from Kochi:
A social activist has moved the Kerala High Court seeking a CBI probe into the findings of the CAG that 12,061 live cartridges ad 25 rifles were missing from the Special Armed Forces Battalion. George Vattukulam, president of the Malayala Vedi, submitted that the loss of arms and ammunition was a serious issue and the police were trying to cover it up. The police failed to trace the missing ammunition.