THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government has directed the district collectors to issue more detention orders under the Kerala Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act (KAAPA) on the proposals submitted by the district police chiefs. The directive comes in the wake of a KAAPA review meeting chaired by Home Secretary Dr V Venu held online last month.
The directive was issued after State Police Chief Anil Kant pointed out that the district collectors turned down around two-thirds of the detention proposals. The district police chiefs had filed 734 proposals this year, of which only 245 were accepted by the collectors.
As per rule, the district police chiefs prepare the proposals for detaining people who have been included in a series of serious crimes and forward them to the district collectors. However, the police often complain that the collectors reject a bulk of the proposals on the basis of legal opinion, which results in the deterioration of the law and order.
The state government has been vocal about implementing the KAAPA strictly and had in the past called down district magistrates/ collectors for rejecting the police’s proposals.
According to the police, the detention rate was much lower in Malappuram, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram districts. The district collectors, meanwhile, stated that the reasons for rejecting the proposals were the pendency of CrPC 107 proceedings, the sufficiency of bail conditions in preventing further crimes, loss of life and non-gravity of the offences proposed for detention. Section 107 of CrPC gives the executive magistrate the power to make the accused person furnish a bond.
The detention is enforced only if the accused fails to comply with the clauses of the bond.
During the meeting, the district collectors were told to expedite the CrPC 107 proceedings and take a decision on the detention proposals within a month. The district police chiefs were asked to report incidents of violation of bond/ bail conditions by the accused, and if district collectors seek additional information on proposals, it should be provided within 14 days.
Meanwhile, the police were strictly told not to include trivial cases in the detention proposals. The police have also been asked to check the bail conditions and if they are sufficient enough to prevent the accused from committing more crimes, then KAAPA should not be invoked against those accused.
The collectors were also told not to reject proposals if the cases against the accused were of political nature as political affiliation should not be the sole reason for the exemption of such people.