By Abdul Basith MA, TwoCircles.net,
Thiruvananthapuram [Kerala]: The district judge K Ramakrishnan’s judicial enquiry report on the Beemapally police firing, which killed six Muslim fishing community members, has pointed out serious lapse from the part of district police and administration. The report was submitted before Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and later handed over to the state home affairs ministry for further examinations.
Chandy assured further acts on the report after discussing it in the state ministers’ meeting. The report accuses the police of being extremely careless while handling the situation. The police fired at the mob, in unwarranted circumstances without even carrying out the normal procedures before firing, the judicial report said.
The incident took place on 17th May 2009, when the LDF government was in power. A goon and drug dealer named Kompu Shibu from Christian dominated Cheriyathura went on to extort money from the locally run Muslim restaurants and was manhandled by the locals. Shibu on his return to the place along with his gang members, in revenge attacked the Muslim dominated areas by pelting stones at shops, houses and even torched fishing boats and nets.
This evoked clashes between the two sections of people in the adjacent coastal areas. The local says that, the police didn’t take any actions against the goons and made attempts to portray the clash as a communal conflict. This created doubts in the minds of the locals and they started protesting against Mafia-police nexus. The police under Commissioner A P George then indiscriminately fired at the mob, killing six and injuring several among them.
The Judicial report submitted now, identifies the criminal activities by these goons as the root cause of the violence and the report specifically blames the Police for not arresting Kompu Shibu, the day before the Police firing. The report says that the district administration and police went ineffective on the day before the police firing despite wide protest by the local Muslim fishermen, who even blocked bus transport in the region demanding adequate actions against the criminals. The district administration and Police took the issue lightly and neglected the protests and demands made.
The locals say that the police had fired at the people the way they clearly intended to kill them by shooting, as the bullets hit in them in upper parts of the body. The mob was even chased by the police while they were running back.
The 815-page judicial report has put forward recommendations to prevent further conflicts in the Beemapally region. The then District collector has stated before the commission that the decision on firing was taken by the police themselves and he rejected the police claim that it was the sub collector who ordered firing. The sub collector too had denied his role in this brutal act and the district administration including ADM and executive magistrates have made it clear that, they have no role on the decision taken.
But the DGP, Jacob Punnoos in his statement before the commission has adopted a stand that, the police firing was a necessity of the time to disperse the mob. The district court had earlier ordered to book murder cases against Assistant commissioners Suresh Kumar, Sharafudheen and Circle Inspectors Pradeep Kumar and Johnson, on a complaint registered by Ishaq, relative of the killed Hakeem.
With the report being submitted Muslim organisations and community members have started feeling that the firing and deaths were resulted from the vested interests of a few supreme police officers whom they say should be ideally punished immediately. They even doubt conspiracies behind the incident as the police seemed like they were in an urge to portray the gangster attack against the locals as a communal conflict.
With these reports being out, it is clear that fake encounters aren’t any more a rare phenomenon exclusive to the north. It was in the same year an Indian Union Muslim League worker [IUML] named Shafeek was shot to death in Kasargod on orders of SP Ram Das Pothan who himself used his service revolver against the congregation. The Muslim Youth league [MYL] workers were there to welcome the Muslim League state committee leaders arriving at the place and the police fired at the congregation immediately after minor frictions and conflicts, without even following any of those normal police firing procedures. Both these incidents took place when the left front led by VS Achuthananthan was at reign and Kodiyeri Balakrishnan [a CPIM polit bureau member] was handling the home affairs.