KOCHI: Malayalis have gone gaga on social media, celebrating and supporting the Telangana Police. But whether the same Malayalis will approve of an encounter killing of a rape or murder accused by Kerala Police is a million-dollar question.
Actors Kunchako Boban, Tovino Thomas and Neeraj Madhav have taken to social media to salute the act of Telangana Police in which they shot dead in an encounter four persons accused of raping and murdering a woman veterinarian.
Ask any police officer in the state about such a scenario in Kerala, their answer will be the same: Malayalis will come out all against Kerala Police if it happens here. Even if a person is killed in a genuine encounter, the police will be crucified for the act.
Former state police chief TP Senkumar recalled an incident to expose the double-standards of Malayalis. In the Puthur Sheela murder case, when the main accused Sampath died in police custody, people came out against the police officers, accusing them of murdering Sampath who was caught by the police for killing a woman named Sheela by slitting her throat.
Though the police found that Sampath had indulged in a rarest of rarest brutality and heinous crime by slitting, stabbing and clubbing her, public sentiments turned against the police officers the moment Sampath died in custody. “Sampath custodial death case is a typical example of how Malayalis see things in a different perspective when it happens in Kerala,” Senkumar said.
Former Research and Analysis Wing chief and Kerala Police chief PK Hormis Tharakan said Malayalis tend to take all actions by Kerala Police only with a pinch of salt.
“In the Telangana incident, we don’t have any clarity on information to confirm whether it was a genuine encounter killing or not. To arrest an accused and get them appropriate conviction from a court in a rape or murder case is not an easy task. Police have to really work hard for that,” he said, adding that when all possible leads indicated Maoist encounter killing at Palakkad as genuine, public sentiment in Kerala was against the police action.