Kerala Oppn wants Home Minister to quit

Taking up a poser by the Kerala High Court on Friday if the underworld bosses were now running the police establishment in the state, the Congress-led Opposition has demanded the immediate resignation of Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishna.

The court had made the remark while disposing of a case involving two underworld gangs in the hawala business at Kondotty in Malappuram, where one gang had waylaid the other and made off with Rs 40 lakh. Alarmed locals who tried to intervene were kept off by both the victims and their assailants insisting this was their internal affair. The local police refused to go to the spot or even register a case even as the car destroyed in the attack lay for many hours on the highway.

Justice R Basant, who heard the anticipatory bail pleas from four of the accused in the wake of belated registering of a case in another district, said it was a shock to find this is the way the Kerala Police functioned. KPCC general secretary M M Hassan said the Home Minister must quit.