Kochi: Coming down heavily on the police, the Kerala High Court on Thursday said that to safeguard morale the force cannot protect the wrongdoers in its ranks. The state police chief has issued a code of conduct circular that all in uniform have to follow. "But, surprisingly, no action is being taken against the policemen who act contrary to it," Justice Devan Ramachandran said.
He made the observation while considering the contempt case related to the incident at Alathur police station where cops misbehaved with a lawyer.
The court pointed out that the reason for not taking action against the police, regardless of the allegations, is that the morale of the force would be affected.
"Are you saying that no matter how egregious the actions are, you have to support the wrongdoer so as not to hurt the force's morale? How do you lose morale if you take action on a wrongdoing? If your morale is so weak, better let it go," Justice Ramachandran observed orally. "If someone makes a mistake while occupying a position of power, I believe he is not fit for the post," Justice Ramachandran said.
The court said that it was surprising that despite so many allegations against a police officer, the state police chief did nothing.
The court observed that the investigation should always be impartial and added that it will consider the case again on Wednesday.
Former Alathur SI V R Rineesh, who was accused of misbehaving with the lawyer, was transferred following the High Court's intervention.
A verbal argument broke out between Adv Aqueeb Suhail and Rineesh when the former reached the Alathur police station with a court order to release a vehicle that was impounded in an accident case. A video of the argument had gone viral on social media. The court registered a suo motu case against the officer in the incident. Later he was transferred from the Alathur station.
On the court's direction, the DGP issued a circular to all officers on how to behave with the public. Noting that the officer's behaviour contradicted the said circular, the court initiated a contempt proceeding against Rineesh. The officer apologised to the court in this case.