Giving a clean chit to Delhi police for its action in the Kerala House beef raid carried out in October, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe has revealed that there was no ‘malafide intention’ in the police action. The revelation came in the form of a statement submitted by the Ministry of Home Affairs in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. According to the government’s response, the action taken up by Delhi police in October was aimed at ensuring that a law and order situation does not arise at Kerala House.
The Parliament had seen a logjam on Monday over intolerance debate with opposition alleging the intolerance was increasing during the BJP-led Narendra Modi government.
BJP hit back by saying that incidents, which were being projected by the opposition as examples of ‘intolerance’, had been taking place in the country for decades.
It’s MP Meenakshi Lekhi also cited Home Ministry figures to insist that incidents of communal violence had come since NDA came to power. She also justified police action in Kerala House incident.
In October, a PCR call by Vishnu Gupta, a Hindu Sena leader of a fringe right-wing group, complaining about beef curry being served at Kerala House in Delhi. The call led Parliament Street police station to send a team of 20 police officers to deal with any potential violence.
However, the Kerala House had said they served only buffalo meat and had named it ‘beef.’
Immediately after the police raid, the issue turned into a full blown controversy with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy criticizing the Delhi Police.
“Kerala House is not a private hotel or an institution run for making profit. It is an official guest house of the state government. The police action was really unfortunate. They should have shown some restraint before carrying out searches,” Chandy had told reporters after the incident.
Chandy also wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to take action against those responsible for trespassing into the property of the Kerala government.
But Delhi Police chief B S Bassi had defended his action and termed the raid as a “preventive measure.” He also said that police were acting well within their rights under the Agricultural Cattle Preservation Act 1994 to investigate.
Feature image source: Reuters
