T P Senkumar yesterday took charge as Kerala police chief, a day after he was reinstated by the state government following a Supreme Court order.
Senkumar was unceremoniously shunted out as the director general of police the day Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan assumed office in May last year.
After taking charge, Senkumar told reporters he would not comment now on the ongoing legal issues with the state government including a contempt petition he has filed against Chief Secretary Nalini Netto which will come up for hearing on May 9.
“At the moment my priority as an important head of a department is towards the state government’s policies, especially issues concerning security of women and children. I don’t expect any sort of confrontation from anywhere,” Senkumar said, adding that he will meet the chief minister at the earliest.
Referring to the appointment of former police chief Raman Srivastava as an adviser on policing, he said: “Let him advise the chief minister. The police have no advisers.”
At 4.25pm, Senkumar arrived at the police headquarters in uniform and was given a ceremonial welcome by an impressive guard of honour.
Later, taking the baton from Loknath Behra, who replaced him last year, Senkumar took his seat.
Meanwhile, a miffed Vijayan told reporters in Alappuzha that the state government went to the Supreme Court because some clarifications were needed.
“The Supreme Court is the last word and hence the reinstatement has been made,” said Vijayan.
Former state Congress president V M Sudheeran said it was the biggest setback for the ‘arrogant’ Vijayan government.
“All wish that through this setback, Vijayan will understand how to behave,” said Sudheeran.
Former state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief P S Sreedharan Pillai said the law has won and Vijayan has suffered a major setback.
Senkumar was moved out of office the day Vijayan assumed charge in May last year for the “poor handling” of a firecracker tragedy at a temple and the Jisha murder case.
After Senkumar’s petition against his removal was turned down by the Central Administrative Tribunal and subsequently by the Kerala High Court, the Supreme Court on April 24 directed the Kerala government to reinstate him.
However, the Vijayan government failed to implement the order in time.
Finally, on Friday morning, the top court, hearing a clarification petition about its April 24 order, slapped a fine of Rs25,000 on the state government for wasting the court’s time.
The court said it knew what to do if its orders were not implemented.
In his petition in the Supreme Court, Senkumar said he was being victimised for acting tough on political killings in the state in which activists of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) are allegedly involved.