When ladoos landed cops in the soup

How much damage can a few ladoos cause?

Quite a lot, going by the predicament in which the police personnel at the Muvattupuzha police station along the eastern suburbs of Kochi now find themselves in.

Accepting a packet of ladoos on Wednesday, the day the bhoomi pujan marking the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh was conducted, has landed the station in the soup.

Regardless of whether the police personnel knew they were taking part in the celebration of a contentious development, the incident got leaked on the social media and was widely circulated. And it assumed a propagandist slant as messages began circulating that a police station under the Left Front government which had always been against the demolition of the Babri Masjid, celebrated the bhoomi pujan.

In the wake of the controversy, District Police Chief (Ernakulam Rural), K. Karthik, ordered a probe into the incident. “The Muvattupuzha DySP has been asked to submit the inquiry report at the earliest”, he said.

As per the version doing the rounds among the cops, a BJP supporter running a shop in front of the station reportedly handed over a packet of ladoos as a celebratory gesture to a policeman on sentry duty. He took it and kept it in the station. It is not clear whether the policeman knew why the ladoos were being served. Later, the police personnel at the station ate them, which they claim, was done without knowing the celebratory purpose for which the sweets were shared.

Asked whether the police unknowingly had the sweets, Mr. Karthik declined to comment and said he would rather wait for the probe report.