Discard home secretary’s clean chit: Ramesh Chennithala

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala has demanded that the report of additional chief secretary (home and vigilance) Vishwas Mehta, giving clean chit to the police, should be immediately discarded as the crime branch has already seized fake cartridge shells from special armed police battalion.
“After the crime branch seized fake cartridge shells, the report of the home secretary itself has become a sham. The report is only an attempt to rescue the government from the crisis it has fallen into, and the report is nothing but tailor-made for how the chief minister asked him to write such a report,” Chennithala said. He said that the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) had sought explanation from the home department over the irregularities in the purchases and missing guns and cartridges before finalising the audit report. The home secretary’s report is the same justification that CAG had examined earlier and discarded after finding them baseless.
The home secretary is also responsible for the findings of the CAG’s report. It is strange that the same person who is one of the culprits is preparing a report that has now given clean chit to all the irregularities, Chennithala said.
A report by Mehta, on the adverse remarks on the police, had given clean chit to the police, completely brushing away the observations of the CAG. The home secretary had given explanation on each of the major observations of the CAG report.