The officials of the Income Tax Department and police are on the verge of a cold war in Kochi after police officials failed in taking appropriate measures in an incident in which IT sleuths were verbally abused and assaulted by a timber businessman and two others during a raid at his residence last week.
The situation turned grave as Deputy Director of IT arrived from Mumbai and discussed the matter with top police officials in the city.
According to IT officials, the incident occurred on October 8, when IT officials after a tip off arrived V P Rasheed’s timber yard and residence in Edappally for conducting a raid. “Our team comprising an inspector and several IT officials were stopped from conducting the raid, attacked and verbally abused by three persons. Following this, the officials had to stop the raid. Later, a complaint was lodged and a case registered against V P Rasheed, Asar Rasheed and Asraf Rasheed at the Kalamassery Police Station. The case was registered under IPC sections 294(B), 332 and 34,” IT sources said.
However, IT officials believe the information regarding the registration of the case was leaked by the police, who assisted the accused to go underground. The police did not even conduct a proper investigation over the matter. Finally, the Deputy Director of IT Department arrived from Mumbai and held a meeting with officials of the Kochi police. The IT Department also conducted a parallel investigation.
There are allegations that the Kalamassery police have failed to take proper action. They even failed to take proper measures in the land grabbing case against Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s gunman Salim Raj.
During the probe, the police could only find out that the accused was involved only in one single case. However, the IT officials said that the police have not conducted proper investigation and that the accused was involved in several cases.
“It was clear that the police investigation is not moving in the right direction as they could not track even the pending cases against the accused. We will meet the police commissioner again and share the information from the parallel investigation conducted by us,” an official said.
When contacted, officials at the Kalamassery police station said that they were investigating whether the accused persons were involved in other cases. “The accused is still at large. The steps would be taken to arrest the accused person as early as possible,” a police official said.
Meanwhile, V P Rasheed, Asar Rasheed and Asraf Rasheed have filed an anticipatory bail plea before the Ernakulam District and Sessions Court. It was stated that the they were implicated on false charges.