Days after submission of the report into the goof-up in Prime Minister's Manmohan Singh's convoy recently, the Kerala government on Saturday shifted inspector general in charge of security and the city police commissioner to some other posts.
The action, based on the chief secretary's inquiry report, was announced by Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan in the presence of Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan at a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram.
City Police Commissioner Manoj Abraham was moved as SP (Crime Branch) whereas the posting for Inspector General P Chandrasekharan will be decided later.
The government considered the route-deviation by a pilot vehicle in the prime minister's motorcade during his visit on October 31 as a serious error and steps had been taken to ensure that this did not happen during VVIP visits in future, Achuthanandan said.
The departmental action, including an inquiry against Circle Inspector Balachandran Nair, who was suspended immediately after the incident, will continue, he said.
Inspector General Vijayanand would be the new IG (Security) and DIG Padmakumar had been made the city police commissioner.
The chief minister and home minister had earlier in the morning discussed the action to be taken in the matter based on the report of Chief Secretary Lizzie Jacob, whose inquiry found that there had been some deviation from the security manual in the arrangements made for the prime minister's visit.
The initial probe by ADGP (Intelligence) had found that 'human error' led to the route deviation of the pilot vehicle driven by a private taxi driver. The ADGP's report had held that it was a common practice to hire taxis and drivers during VVIP visits and a communication slip-up between the pilot officer and the driver had caused the route deviation when the prime minister's motorcade was on its way from the Airport to the Raj Bhavan.
However, the chief minister, who apparently thought that further inquiry into the matter was required, asked the chief secretary to have a thorough look into the incident and also recommend steps for making foolproof security arrangements in future.
The pilot car deviated from the fixed route when it reached the Asan Square in Thiruvanathapuram after its driver took a sharp right turn while moving towards the Raj Bhavan.
The driver was immediately taken into custody, but let off the next day after interrogation by both the state police and SPG. The incident led to serious embarrassment for the LDF government on the occasion of the state's Golden Jubilee celebrations for inaugurating which the prime minister had come
