KOCHI: In the wake of police department’s announcement of good service entry and cash awards to women police personnel who arrested Hindu Aikyavedi president K P Sasikala at Sabarimala courting a controversy, police department on Saturday made it clear that it was a routine process and there was nothing political about it.
Thiruvananthapuram range Inspector General Manoj Abraham said the department decided to award the women police personnel considering their relentless service while discharging their duty. “Department used to regularly recognise police personnel who deliver their best. These women police personnel deployed at Sabarimala did their best to help pligrims and maintain law and order. There is nothing political in awarding the women police personnel,” he said adding that even recognising the meritorious service of young IPS officer Yatish Chandra G H at Nilakkal was a routine affair.
Though police claimed it totally a non-political affair, many see it as a befitting reply by the LDF government to the BJP which protested against the arrest of Sasikala at Sabarimala and the manner in which Yatish Chandra reacted to Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan during his visit to Sabarimala. Meanwhile, ridiculing the decision of the state police chief to grant reward to women police officers who arrested her while trekking Sabarimala on November 17, Sasikala said she could not understand the heroism in arresting an unarmed devotee visiting a temple.
“The government deliberately leaked the news expecting us to attack the women officers. But we didn’t fall prey to their dubious designs. These officers are just tools in the hands of their higher ups. We know the sufferings of the women officers deployed at Sabarimala who are struggling due to lack of basic amenities including toilets.
I am ready to trek Sabarimala once again if the government will give them more rewards,” Sasikala told Express.Mocking the state police, she said DGP Loknath Behera should use the same team to find out Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran who according to a report filed by the police before the court, has been absconding. Let them arrest the killers of SFI leader Abhimanyu and prove their heroism, she said.