The Hindu : Kerala News : DGP criticises political parties

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 23, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

DGP criticises political parties

By Our Staff Reporter

KOZHIKODE, JUNE 22. Peeved at the barrage of criticism against the Police Department, the Director General of Police, P.K. Hormese Tharakan, has pulled up the political parties for abetting criminals in the State.

Addressing a press conference here today, Mr. Tharakan said crimes could be curtailed to a large extent if political parties stopped harbouring criminals and goons. Political parties should behave themselves by not organising violent agitations in the State. If they were organising violent agitations the police would have time only to look into these aspects instead of monitoring and curbing other organised crimes. However, he said, the police personnel were bound to respect and take the advice of elected representatives of people.

Replying to a query why a particular political party was targeting the police for the failure of the ruling coalition in the recent Lok Sabha polls in the State, Mr. Tharakan said the election debacle and police functioning did not have any connection.. "The police are bothered only about the law and order situation,'' he said.

He also said that corruption in the police force was not a new issue when his attention was drawn to the statement of the Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, that some officers in the middle-rank had been indulging in corrupt practices. However, basic policing had improved in recent times with less number of cases of police atrocities, Mr. Tharakan said.

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