THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In response to the ‘hurried promotion’ remark of the High Court against S Sreejith’s posting as DGP, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said that the process was not hurried, but rather automatic. The government has neither favoured nor opposed anyone, he said.
“There are three reasons to deny promotion for an IPS officer-- suspension, department-level action and memo served, or any criminal case against them with chargesheet filed. When the LDF government published the seniority list with M R Ajithkumar’s name first, followed by S Sreejith and Suresh Raj Purohit, no cases were registered against them. Now that Ajithkumar has been suspended, the post naturally went to Sreejith. No officer’s promotion can be withheld because a case would come up against him in the future,” he said.
Responding to questions about the Punarjani case, Chennithala said that the agencies that probed the Punarjani case during the LDF government’s tenure could not find any evidence to link V D Satheesan to the case. Upon being asked about RSS ideologue T G Mohandas not being arrested over his controversial comments about the students’ protest in Delhi, the minister said that the decision should be taken by the investigating officer.
In response to remark made by Arjun Ayanki, the accused in multiple cases, Chennithala said, “We are taking strong action against goons. Wait and see what is in store for those who challenge the system.”