The Kerala government under the incumbent Communist Party of India (Marxist) rule has failed to secure conviction of a single terrorist, accused in 431 cases of bomb blasts in the State between June 2016 and August 2022.
As per a report by Onmanorama News, the police have filed chargesheets in only 162 cases while it closed 205 cases claiming lack of progress in the probe. Additionally, 2 other cases were shut citing lack of evidence.
The report also stated that the Kerala police did not probe most of the cases as the accused belonged to the ruling CPIM. “Often, top police officers exerted pressure on the investigation teams to sabotage the cases,” noted Onmanorama News.
Besides terror attacks, the report added that 142 chargesheets were filed in 150 cases of goonda attacks. While 6 of the accused were acquitted, only 5 of the criminals were sentenced.
‘Goonda’ is a term used to refer to criminals who had been convicted by a court or found complicit by a competent police officer under the Kerala Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 2007.
The cops lodged only 10 cases where the accused were found to be making bombs. They filed chargesheets in only 5 cases and closed two others.
“It is alleged that the police top brass showed little interest in ensuring that investigation teams presented foolproof evidence against the accused before the courts,” Onmanorama News stated.
The report added that in one case, the sub-inspector of Kazhakkoottam in Kerala’s capital city Thiruvananthapuram reached out to all history sheeters and requested them to sign the register at the police station.
The development comes amid the ongoing Lok Sabha elections where the CPIM has been propagating the myth of the ‘Kerala Model‘ to justify its dubious claims of good governance in the State.
In reality, Kerala has been in deep financial distress, worsened by growing Islamic radicalisation and a lack of concrete governmental crackdown on the party’s largest vote bank in the State.