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The minister said that he had given directions to the senior IPS officer after the matter was brought to his notice.
The incident occurred on October 2, when a group of five women conducted a survey in Karimbadom colony in Thiruvananthapuram, a densely populated Muslim quarter. There were 80 questions in the questionnaire and of which 30 were to be answered only by Muslims.
The questions which were to be answered only by Muslims included those like why do Muslims wear a burqa , how does the Muslim community treat the visit of the US President Barack Obama to India, what was their attitude towards Palestine, Israel etc.
Some people's suspicions were raised when the women could not produce any proper identity cards and they reported it to the police.
The women were taken to Fort police station and later let off. It was only a couple of days ago, when the intelligence Additional Director General of Police Sibi Mathews submitted a detailed report to state home minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan that the issue turned into a major one.
The state home ministry has already reported the matter to the Union home ministry and it is against this background that Ramachandran has ordered a probe into the matter .
A resident of Karimbadom colony said, "Those who came to do the survey were suspicious and when the questionnaires were primarily directed at the Muslim community, we thought it is better to inform the police."
Another resident said, "The questionnaire lacked any natural questions connected to social improvement or elections .This showed that there was some sinister design behind the questionnaire and hence we reported the matter to the police. We expect that this issue is probed seriously and the culprits brought to book".
Sources in the Fort police station said that initially the women were let off without an FIR being filed and it was only after the issue snowballed into a controversy that the FIR was registered .