‘Obliging’ cops avoid arrest of SFI leader despite court warrant

The Kerala Police, ruled by Marxist Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, on Friday proved their obedience to the Left masters by conveniently forgetting an order of the judiciary to arrest Sindhu Joy, former State president of pro-CPI(M) students’ outfit SFI, though she appeared before hundreds of policemen including high-ranking officials in front of the Governor’s residence in the capital for a Left protest programme.

The Chief Judicial Magistrate, Thiruvanantha-puram, had on Thursday afternoon issued non-bailable arrest warrants against Sindhu and former SFI State secretary M Swaraj on cases dating as back as the first half of 2006 after they consistently failed to appear in court despite repeated summons, following their release on bail. The court had specifically asked the Director General of Police to initiate action in this direction.

The court had also asked the police while issuing the warrants whether the laws of the land were not applicable to politicians and political parties. Within barely a day of the expression of this doubt by the judiciary, the police proved the comment true by not even trying to remember the warrant when she appeared in front of them with her political mentors and associates in front of the Raj Bhavan to protest against Central neglect towards Kerala.

“Why don’t you ask the bosses?” fumed a Deputy Superintendent of Police present on the spot when asked, “Has the warrant against Sindhu Joy been withdrawn?” Another official said he had no knowledge about such a warrant. However, Sindhu Joy sat at the shamiana put up for the agitation for more than an hour even after these doubts were expressed directly to the top cops.

Officials also said that even ordinary citizens had the right to arrest and hand over to police the persons against whom the Judiciary had issued non-bailable warrants. However, no political leader or worker, including CPI(M) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, who was present there and who was the one controlling the rule in the State as head of the lead LDF constituent, seemed bothered about this.

However, a woman police official admitted that there had been no instruction from the top even after she had informed a senior DySP about the presence of Sindhu at the protest venue. She said she had not formally known about the issuance of the warrant but had seen the news on the telly and in the papers.

The court had also ordered registration of cases against those who had stood sureties for the bails of the two leaders. Cases had been registered against six companions of the duo. Swaraj was State secretary and Sindhu Joy the State president of the SFI when the agitation that formed the basis of the cases had taken place.

This was not the first time the police under Minister Kodiyeri and DGP Raman Srivastava, known for his love for the political masters, had failed to arrest SFI lawbreakers. The Home Minister’s son, Bineesh Kodiyeri, had avoided arrest for a long time despite court orders in a case regarding violent SFI struggle.

The Kerala Police had declared Bineesh absconding even when he was cozily sitting at the official residence of his father, the Home Minister, moving around easily in the capital and appearing at social gatherings where the who’s who of Thiruvananthapuram used to be present. Bineesh had later ‘surrendered’ before the police, and there were reports that he did not do so out of respect for law but because he wanted police clearance to go to the Gulf.

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