Marxist Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday admitted that goonda gangs had “started raising their heads” in Kerala while the Congress-led UDF Opposition alleged in the Assembly that the State had turned into a haven for goondas under the rule of the CPI(M)-headed lDF.
“Goonda activities are extensive in the State and the situation is such that there is no security for the life and property of common man,” Congress legislator PT Thomas alleged while seeking leave for an adjournment motion on the increasing cases of felonious activities in the State, adding that certain CPI(M) leaders from Kannur and Kochi had connections with gangs.
Alleging that there was a nexus between goondas and the police, Thomas said, “If a common man lodges a complaint about goondas at a police station, hoodlums — and not the police — would reach his house in just ten minutes.” He also said that a top police official based in central Kerala had close connections with goondas.
Thomas’s notice for adjournment motion on the subject came in the wake of a recent incident in Kochi in which a gang had subjected a city-based businesswoman to huge extortion by posing as close associates of the Chief Minister. The police have arrested seven persons, including a local leader of the DYFI, the CPI(M)’s youth outfit, in connection with the incident.
Replying to the notice for adjournment motion, the Chief Minister admitted that goonda gangs had started showing their hoods recently but claimed that the Government was taking an uncompromising approach in dealing with them. He said such persons would not get any protection from the Government even if they were close to him.
“If such a person leans on to the (Marxist) party in the hope to get protection, the Government is not here to provide protective shield for him. Gangs have started showing their heads as of late. I haven’t come across any information to believe that there are links between police and goondas. A special system would be put in place for monitoring and controlling gangs” Pinarayi said.
Speaking in support of Thomas’s notice for the adjournment motion, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said that Kerala had become a haven for goondas under the lDF rule. The police did not have the time to deal with the goonda menace as a cold war was raging among the State’s top police officials, Chennithala alleged.
“The State has turned into a Thiruttu Gramam (nickname given by a section of the Kerala Press for the Tamil Nadu village, Panavadali Chatram, allegedly a haven for thieves operating outside that state). How can the ordinary people hope to get justice when the police are in friendship with goonda gangsIJ” the Opposition leader asked.
The Opposition also alleged that the police were being so irresponsible that there was an incident in which an official threatened to trap people from a minority community in terror-linked cases. Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan refused leave for the adjournment motion after the Chief Minister’s reply following which the Opposition walked out of the House in protest.
Kerala CPI(M) secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan told newsmen at AKG Centre, the party’s State headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, that neither his party nor the lDF Government headed by it would protect goondas in any way. He also claimed that nobody in the Marxist party was indulging in felonious activities.