Police treading carefully on petition against ED

The Kochi City police are treading carefully on a petition lodged by P.R. Aravindakshan, CPI(M) councillor and Health standing committee chairman of the Wadakkanchery municipality alleging that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials physically assaulted him while being questioned in connection with the multi-crore Karuvannur Cooperative Bank money-laundering case.

The Kochi City police are treading carefully on a petition lodged by P.R. Aravindakshan, CPI(M) councillor and Health standing committee chairman of the Wadakkanchery municipality alleging that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials physically assaulted him while being questioned in connection with the multi-crore Karuvannur Cooperative Bank money-laundering case.

The petition was lodged with the Ernakulam Central police on Wednesday and the petitioner had even got himself admitted to a hospital alleging that he was beaten up by the ED officials. The police had visited the ED office in connection with the petition on the very same day.

However, three days after the receipt of the petition, the Central police were yet to register a First Information Report (FIR). The investigation was under way, is only what a senior official with the city police would say when asked about the issue. He didn’t even clarify whether a FIR would be registered based on the investigation. It is learnt that police have decided to seek legal opinion before taking any further action since the party being accused was a Central investigation agency.

According to police sources, technically, there were no hurdles in filing a FIR on a petition involving a cognizable offence. In the instance case, the petitioner had said he had been assaulted, which is not a permissible method by any investigation agency. Hence, a FIR could be registered after the which the facts of the case would emerge in the ensuing probe. “However, in this case, police have chosen to seek legal opinion since a central investigation agency was involved,” said another senior official.

That the petition has emerged in connection with a politically sensitive case like the alleged Karuvannur Cooperative Bank money laundering case in which the ruling party members were involved also seemed to have prompted the police to get a feel of the political decision before proceeding further.

Besides, the past ignominy on registering a case against the ED officials in the diplomatic gold smuggling case also seemed to be behind treading carefully. The Crime Branch had filed two FIRs against certain unnamed ED officials for allegedly coercing Swapna Suresh, prime accused in the diplomatic gold smuggling case to give accusatory statements against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. However, the Kerala High Court quashed both the FIRs in April 2021.

At that time, it had emerged that the decision to register FIRs was a political decision and that the top echelons of police were not fully in agreement.