UDF has no right to ask judicial probe into custodial deaths

Pathanamthitta, Aug 10 (UNI) Kerala Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan today said that the Opposition United Democratic Front(UDF) had no moral right to demand a judicial inquiry into the recent custodial deaths in the state.

Talking to mediapersons here, he said the Left Democratic Front(LDF) government saw no reason to order such an inquiry as asked by the UDF in the present context.

Mr Balakrishnan said custodial deaths reported since the LDF came to power could not be termed as "lock-up deaths." Of the 207 custodial deaths occurred during the UDF rule, 14 had been confirmed as lock-up deaths, he said adding that even then no judicial inquiry was ordered into a single instance. In contrast, the LDF government ordered prompt probes into all custodial deaths and due action was taken against those found guilty. Kodiyeri said the Mr Balakrishnan alleged that the recurrence of custodial deaths now could be a fall-out of the trivialisation of such incidents by the previous UDF Government.

He said the government was for amending the Police Act to make it fool-proof. Discussions with former DGPs human rights activists and officials concerned had been initiated already in this regard.

Various suggestions contained in the Justice K T Thomas Commission report on police modernisation were being implemented.

On the Sabarimala Tantri case, Mr Balakrishnan said every aspect of it would be investigated without any interference from the government.

UNI XR PMM DK1922