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Ahead of the by-election in the Palakkad assembly constituency, Congress leader VD Satheesan on Thursday wrote a letter to the Election Commission of India (ECI) accusing the Kerala government led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] of misusing police machinery. There were no female officers to carry out searches in the rooms of women leaders of Congress, the Leader of Opposition (LoP) added.
Satheesan urged Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar to take steps to remedy police actions against the Congress leaders and to ensure free and fair elections. "It is evident that the CPI(M) led State Government is attempting to overthrow free and fair elections, while the Model Code of Conduct and other restrictions are still in place, I strongly urge the Hon'ble Election Commission of India to appraise this matter with the weight that it deserves, and to take urgent corrective steps to remedy police atrocities that already transpired, and to prevent further police atrocities, and to do all that is necessary to ensure free and fair elections, and to give proper directions to the Chief Electoral Officer and other Election Officials and the police machinery. I sincerely hope there will be sufficient and swift action from the part of the Hon'ble Election Commission of India against police atrocities and incidents thereto." the letter stated. The Congress leader said that the raid carried out by the police was "scripted" and "pre-planned" as they searched without ensuring security which led to CPI(M) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists mobilising outside the hotel and creating an environment of conflict. Satheesan said that the police officers were in plain clothes with no identification and didn't have any female police officers to carry out searches in the rooms of women leaders. "It was only following Shanimol Usman raising an alarm over the same, and demanding the presence of female police officer, hours later female police officers were dispatched and search was conducted in their presence. The police did not comply with any of the procedure prescribed in BNSS (Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita) for search," the letter read. (ANI)
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