Daijiworld Media Network – Thiruvananthapuram (SP)

Thiruvananthapuram, May 25: It is strange but true. If evidences on hand are any indication, a senior police officer, the police department has found its dismay, had hired ruffians in his effort to teach a lesson to a journalist. P B Unnithan, reporter of Malayalam daily, ‘Mathrubhumi’, is recuperating in a hospital after a brutal attack by hired goons at Kollam on April 16 this year. The investigating officers, who took up the investigation, are in for a shock, as they found that senior police officer, Santosh N Nair, had hired some people to assault the above journalist.

Unnithan, senior reporter of the daily, was attacked by a gang with iron rods. He suffered multiple fractures of legs, hands and ribs in the attack. ‘Happy’ Rajesh, who supposedly led the assaulters, was found murdered two weeks later. The gangsters who attacked Unnithan had reportedly been shouting about certain report Unnithan had authored some time back.

Reportedly, Nair, working as deputy superintendent of police, crime branch, had been nursing a grudge against Unnithan for publishing an article in the daily in 2009. On the basis of this report, which was partly correct, Nair was under suspension for some time, it is learnt. It is said that Nair was incensed at the harm caused to his reputation because of this article. Nair has since been taken into custody for questioning.

Gouridasan Nair, president of Kerala Union of Working Journalists, has lamented the criminalization of police force in Kerala, and demanded immediate action to end this menace.

Local deputy inspector general of police, S Sreejith, said that the police department will move against its own employee if it is convinced that he was at fault. “There is no need to doubt our integrity. We are professional, and if an officer of the department has committed crime, he will be punished,” he clarified.