THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as custodial torture and other police excesses are on the rise, the state government has been sitting over a proposal for the past four years to appoint an independent Chief Investigation Officer in the State Police Complaints Authority (SPCA) to probe such incidents.
After repeated requests from SPCA, the government sanctioned the post in 2016. To ensure the officer works impartially, the SPCA’s recommendation that the candidate should be a person who has never served in the Kerala Police, was finally accepted.
The officer will have a rank equivalent to an SP and will probe custodial violence including all types of physical and mental torture inflicted on a person by police personnel. The officer is also entitled to conduct inspections at police stations anytime. However, the appointment is hanging fire at a time when over 1,800 complaints of police excesses are pending before the SPCA.
In 2017, the Home Department amended its earlier order and said the selection of the Chief Investigation Officer will be done by a committee of three members headed by the Additional Chief Secretary (Home & Vigilance), a nominee of the SPCA chairperson and a government nominee.
Though the committee has held a couple of sittings in the past, the selection process has not been completed to such a crucial post even as cases of police atrocities continue to be on the rise.
Recently, the government nominee was replaced by another senior IPS officer, but the process is still in limbo, allegedly due to bureaucratic apathy.
Though Kerala took the lead in setting up the SPCA, it is lagging behind other states in appointing an independent investigation officer to check police excesses.
Ironically, a few other states which had taken a cue from the state’s move to appoint such an officer have completed the process, it is pointed out.