Thiruvananthapuram: The Thunderbolt commandoes, who are in charge of the security at the Padmanabhaswamy Temple in the heart of Kerala's capital city, are facing immense hardships. Five personnel have already gone on medical leave owing to severe strain as the commandoes are made to run long distances and engage in physically taxing labour. It is said the authorities are penalising them as a fallout of the recent row over misusing postal ballots of cops for electoral fraud. The alleged election rigging was exposed as a WhatsApp message sent by a commando posted on temple duty appeared in public domain, thereby reaching the media.
Fifty commandoes are in charge of the security at the Padmanabhaswamy Temple which is reportedly facing terror threats. It is said after two days of continuous work, they have to appear for gruelling parade and then return to work again.
A batch of 13 commandoes has to appear at the SAP camp by 7 pm after two day's duty. They are made to sleep on the hard floor. Their attendance is taken twice, once in the night and the other during the wee hours, disrupting the sleep. They are also made to run on the road for 8 km, followed by a parade on the ground. After lunch, they are made to plough the grass, which is ordered on the pretext of weapon's training.
They are back at the temple for security duty by 7 pm. The next day, the anther batch of 13 arrives. Two of the commandoes had fainted on the road during the training that began three days ago. However, they were not taken to the hospital. Then five of them, including the two who fainted, went on leave.
DGP Loknath Behera had ordered the punishment for the 50 commandoes for 10 days.
Generally, the commandoes work two days consecutively and then are given off on the third day. They are also allowed to take a four-hour break after two hours of continuous work. However, after the WhatsApp message became public, the Crime Branch filed a case and the commando who sent the message was suspended.
A probe by the state Criminal Intelligence Department (CID) chief had confirmed that the members of the Kerala Police Association were threatened and their postal ballots were seized by its leaders for casting votes in favour of Left candidates. Most of the irregularities were detected at Kasaragod, Kannur, Vadakara, Alathur, Kollam and Attingal Lok Sabha constituencies, the Intelligence chief said in his four-page report.
It was also revealed an IRB cop, who is a native of Vattappara, had collected postal police ballots at his house address to carry out election rigging.
