The Supreme Court has directed the Kerala government to reinstate former Director General of Police , DGP, T P Senkumar. He was removed from the post by the LDF government, saying he had protected erring police officials in the 2016 Puttingal temple fire tragedy in which 110 people were killed.
The apex court today said, he was transferred from the post arbitrarily. A bench comprising Justices M B Lokur and Deepak Gupta directed his reinstatement.
The Supreme Court set aside the order of the Kerala High Court which had upheld the Central Administrative Tribunal’s decision in the fire tragedy. The tribunal had not found fault with the state government’s decision to transfer T P Senkumar from the post of the state police chief.
The state government had told the court that Senkumar’s transfer was not a punishment for the lapse which had led to the 2016 fire incident. Rather, it was for how he had handled the fallout of the tragedy.