THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Suggesting that there were attempts to sabotage the initial investigation into the arson attack on Swami Sandeepananda Giri’s ashram, the superintendent of the Crime Branch unit that cracked the case has written to the wing ADGP listing the lapses that occurred on the part of the investigators. Sources said S P Sunilkumar V wrote to the Crime Branch head to take action against the officers who made the lapses while investigating the case.
The SP has recommended action against the then Cantonment assistant commissioner and the officers from Poojappura and Vilappil police stations, who conducted the probe in the initial stage. According to sources, the report filed by the SP said the investigators overlooked several crucial pieces of evidence, which could have helped them solve the case much earlier. The CCTV visuals collected from the area, the writing on the wreath and the phone call details of local BJP-RSS workers were found to be missing by the Crime Branch sleuths, who later conducted the probe.
The writing on the wreath was earlier presented as evidence before the court. It went missing after the cops took it back. The Crime Branch that took over the case had to rely on photographs of the wreath to identify the owner of the handwriting.
Also, the suicide of Prakash, who was part of the team that set fire to the ashram, was not thoroughly probed. Prakash committed suicide in January this year and his brother Prasanth later revealed that his brother had taken part in the attack along with a few other RSS workers. Following this revelation, the Crime Branch managed to arrest four people, including a BJP Thiruvananthapuram corporation councillor V G Girikumar, in the case.
The ashram came under attack in 2018 when protests over the entry of young women into the hill shrine in Sabarimala were at their peak. Sandeepananda Giri was in favour of women’s entry into the hill shrine.