KOTTAYAM: A seemingly trivial dispute at a church event, involving a gifted piano, snowballed into a bitter feud between a planter and a senior IPS officer - an episode that eventually became intertwined with the fall of a government. That was the plot of Prithviraj-starrer Malayalam movie, Kaduva, released in 2022.
In what appears to be a striking real-life parallel, a seemingly insignificant brawl between two families in Kuttanad, Alappuzha, 36 years ago set in motion a chain of events that would culminate in a landmark episode in Kerala’s police history - the conviction and sentencing of a police officer who went on to retire as Director General of Police (DGP), the highest rank in the state police force, in a disproportionate assets case. At the centre of this real-life saga is Bobby Kuruvila, a pisciculturist hailing from Mampuzhakary in Kuttanad. At the other end is Tomin J Thachankary, the retired DGP.
According to Bobby, his prolonged battle against Thachankary began in 1990, when the latter was serving as Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) in Alappuzha. Bobby alleged that he and his family members were sought to be implicated in a false case following a dispute involving one of Thachankary’s relatives.
“It dates back to October 1990, when Thachankary was the ASP in Alappuzha. My father, Kuruvila, and my brother Alexander had a run-in with one of Thachankary’s relatives. However, the case registered against us alleged that we had pointed a gun at the complainant. This was followed by relentless police harassment,” Bobby said.
The family subsequently approached the DGP, following which the Crime Branch took over the investigation. According to Bobby, the Crime Branch found the original complaint to be false.
In 1995, K L Kuruvila filed a complaint before the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) alleging that Thachankary had amassed disproportionate assets. The complaint cited, among other things, an advertisement published in a Malayalam newspaper in the US for a Christian music concert organised by Thachankary while he was still in police service. Kuruvila later died, but Bobby and Alexander continued to pursue the matter. Bobby filed writ petitions in the High Court twelve times and also pursued the case in the Supreme Court.
Ultimately, the Vigilance Department investigated the asset accumulation only for the period between January 2003 and July 2007.
A Vigilance case was registered in 2007. Despite raids being conducted at six locations, the investigation was concluded and the chargesheet filed at the Thrissur Vigilance Court only in 2013. Subsequently, the case was transferred to the Muvattupuzha court and later to Kottayam.
Bobby said he would soon file a fresh complaint seeking an investigation into Thachankary’s alleged corruption during the remaining period of his service, from 2007 until his retirement as DGP in 2023.