Stirring up a row, Congress State president Mullappally Ramachandran has alleged that IPS officer Loknath Behara was made Kerala police chief at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi after he as senior NIA officer gave him and BJP president Amit Shah a 'clean chit" in Gujarat riots and Ishrat Jahan alleged fake encounter cases.
Ramachandran, who had served as minister of State for Home Affairs for five years in the Manmohan Singh cabinet in 2009, made the allegation at a meeting of the Youth League in Vatkara in Kozhikode district last night.
Reacting to the allegation, BJP Rajya Sabha MP, V Muraleedharan told PTI "if Behara had done anything wrong as Ramachandran has claimed, why was no action taken?" .. which means, he supported the wrongdoing when he was a minister."
"Besides, by revealing an official secret, he had now breached the oath of office," Muraleedharan said.
Ramachandran said as a Union minister for five years, he had gone through several files.
This included "those relating to the biggest riots the country has seen-- the Gujarat violence, Ishrat Jahan case (relating to the "encounter" killing of a 19-year-old woman and three others on the outskirts of Ahmedabad) and lots of other cases in which Modi, (who was then Gujarat chief minister) and Amit Shah, were co-accused," he said
Modi was accused of asking police to go soft on rioters targeting the Muslims.
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In 2012, he was cleared of complicity in the violence by a Supreme court appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) which had questioned him for over 9 hours in the post-Godhra Gulberg society massacre case.
Zakia Jafri, widow of former congress MP Ehsan Jafri, who was among the 69 persons killed in the Gulberg society carnage, had moved the court against Modi and other accused.
Ramachandran alleged that Behara was one of the officers of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), who had prepared the report "giving clean chit" to Modi and Shah.
The congress leader said the report had "amused all of us."
As a quid pro quo, Ramachandran alleged, Behara was appointed Kerala DGP on the directions of the Prime minister.
Taking a dig at chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Ramachandran said Modi had directed his "new found companion" to appoint Behara as DGP and he had obliged.
Former state home minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said if Ramachandran has said he had seen the particular files, there was no reason to disbelieve him as he was then the minister of state for home.
Behara, who is out of station, could not be reached for comment.
Ishrat Jahan, a 19-year-old woman from Mumbra area of Thane district near Mumbai and three others -- Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar -- were killed by the police in an "encounter" on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on June 15, 2004.
Police had claimed that the four had terror links and had plotted to kill then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.
A CBI probe held that the encounter was fake.
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