Kerala min faces flak for jail FB lapses, Congressmen hold home min responsible

KOCHI: Close on the heels of reports that the accused in the TP Chandrashekharan murder case have been using mobile phones and internet inside the Kozikkode district jail, a section of the Congress leaders in the state has held home minister Thiruvanchiyoor Radhakrishnan responsible for the incident.

K Sudhakaran, Member of Parliament from Kannur, said Chief Minister Oommen Chandy should remove Thiruvanchiyoor from the ministry if he is not correcting his ways. The Kannur MP said the ministers should not try to implement his own agenda. The home minister should understand the sentiments of the ordinary party worker, he said.

The Kannur District Congress Committee has, in the meanwhile, written to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Mukul Wasnik, who is in charge of the Kerala affairs, seeking a reallocation of the home portfolio.

Five of the accused in the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) leader Chandrashekharan murder case have been found to use mobile phones and Facebook inside the Kozikkode district jail. While describing the development as a serious matter, senior police officials said that mobile jammers and sensors will be installed in the jail.

K Muralidharan, MLA, described the incident as “a serious lapse” by the home department. He said that a meeting of the party-government coordination committee should be convened to discuss the issue. Thiruvanchiyoor Radhakrishnan was also criticized for the way in which the solar scam was handled. The delay in arresting the culprits who attacked the chief minister Oommen Chandy at Kannur recently was another reason for criticising the home ministry.

Meanwhile, the home department conducted surprise raids in the Kozikkode district jail. The home ministry is likely to shift some of the prisoners to the central jail in Thiruvananthapuram after getting the consent from the Court.