THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has written to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, seeking an urgent high-level probe into the disappearance of the then State Police Chief(SPC)T P Senkumar’s recommendations in the Secretariat file related to the Puttingal fireworks tragedy.
Chandy has called for steps to find out the circumstances which resulted in the disappearance of the file jotings and who all were responsible for the same.
“The Supreme Court verdict in the case pertaining to Senkumar’s ouster as SPC contained observations indicating the then Chief Minister erred in initiating suitable follow-up action in the wake of the Puttingal fireworks tragedy and the related file was kept pending. To remove the comments, a high-level probe is essential,” Chandy said in the letter.
According to Chandy, the file (no 32931/F 1/Home) pertaining to the Puttingal tragedy, with the recommendations of the then Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Home was submitted on April 13,2016.(Nalini Netto, incumbent Chief Secretary, was the then Home ACS).
“Then Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala had directed the contents of the file should be discussed with the SPC and also to show it to the Chief Minister.
I approved it and the file was sent to the police headquarters by noon. With the recommendations of SPC T P Senkumar, the file came back to the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) within an hour.The SPC had said the Kerala High Court was holding a special sitting on the Puttingal tragedy on that day and it would be appropriate to initiate the follow-up action after considering the court directives. With the jottings made by the SPC, the file was returned on the same day,” he said.
“I’ve come to know only now about the Supreme Court’s observations the Chief Minister didn’t initiate any follow-up measures. Had the Supreme Court gone through the recommendations and notes of the SPC in the mentioned file, comments passed against me wouldn’t have been there.
However, the SPC’s recommendations are now missing from the file,” he said.
Unfolding a new dimension to the missing recommendations and notes of the SPC in the file, Chandy said,” How could the recommendations of the SPC have vanished from a file which was handled only by the Chief Minister and his Cabinet colleagues?”