THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala home secretary Vishwas Mehta gave a clean chit to the state police following a probe ordered by chief minister in the wake of serious allegations levelled by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report.
The secretary's report raised further controversy as it justified every single charge in the CAG report from covering up missing rifles to fixing purchases in the department.
The report submitted to the chief minister said no arms and ammunition were missing from the armory and it was a case of inaccurate stock register. The report also justified the purchase of bullet-resistant vehicles without open tender on the basis of safety reasons.
There was no illegality in the construction of villas for senior-most officers as they did not have official residences, said the report of home secretary.
According to Mehta, the purchase of GPS tablet to a single bidder (Panasonic) was also a right move as no other vendors had service centres nearby.
However, the Opposition MLAs said the report by the home secretary was yet another cover-up by the government. Congress MLA PT Thomas reiterated his demand for a probe by CBI and NIA into the case.
"The CAG report was tabled after conducting exit interviews with the state police chief Loknath Behera and other top officials of the government. They could not justify the lapses during exit interviews," Thomas said.
The home secretary's report came two days after the Crime Branch led by ADGP Tomin Thachankary took stock of the rifles in the armory of Special Armed Police Battalion on Monday to prove that no rifle was missing.
According to CAG report, the battalion lost 25 INSAS rifles and 12,061 live cartridges over the years. It was also critical of the cover-up attempts with dummy cartridges. The report was made after a joint inspection by auditors and battalion officers.
According to the performance audit report the fund used for constructing five villas coming up at Bhaktavilasom police quarters in Thiruvananthapuram was meant for staff quarters for 30 upper subordinates (Sub-Inspector and Assistant Sub-Inspector).
The audit report further said that the purchase of bullet-resistant vehicle by Behera without following store purchase norms had the approval of government. The order issued by home department on January 5 in 2019 gave its approval which was was publicised on February 17. It vindicated the findings of CAG report that the SPC fixed the deal and then got the government to approve it.
The report did not buy SPC's argument that cited security reason for not opting open tender. It pointed out that states such as Odisha and Bihar had resorted open tender for making similar procurement.
CAG report was also critical of using the funds meant for 'Modernisation of Police Force Scheme' for purchasing vehicles for VIPs.