The summary removal of a young IPS officer from the post of deputy commissioner in Kerala has revived the question of political interference in police administration in the state.

Chaitra Teresa John was shifted within hours after she raided the office of the Thiruvananthapuram district committee of the CPM. The decision to transfer her was apparently taken by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Teresa John had gone to the party office after she gathered information that some workers belonging to the CPM youth wing DYFI, wanted in connection with an attack on the local Medical College police station, were present there.

The youths had apparently tried last week to forcibly free from the police station two DYFI activists arrested in a case registered under the Pocso Act.

The officer could not find any accused in the party office. The CPM took serious offence of her action and demanded her removal.

“Raiding the party office was not a right action. The officer could not even find an accused inside the party office. I have got complaints against the police, after which I also asked the DGP to probe the action,” Vijayan told the Assembly on Monday.

The Opposition did not pursue the issue further in the House.

This is not the first time that workers of ruling parties have tried to browbeat the police force. It is a common practice in Kerala, irrespective of whether the Left Front or the Congress-led United Democratic Front is in power. Only, the tendency of ruling party workers meddling in the working of the police force is more evident during the Left rule.

Allegations that district and even local party offices control the police are common whenever the CPM had come to power. This is more rampant in party strongholds such as Kannur. The current state secretary of the CPM, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, had once threatened to turn police stations into bomb-making units.

The action against an officer who was doing her duty has come at a time the police force under Vijayan has been accused of “inaction” in a number of cases.

This is the one reason that has been cited by the district CPM secretary while demanding removal of the police officer for “demeaning the party”.

District CPM secretary Anavoor Nagappan’s main complaint was that the police officer dared to raid a CPM party office while there was no such action against an RSS leader who was seen on tape hurling bombs at a police station during a Sabarimala-related shutdown.

It is true that the Sangh leader is walking freely on the streets of Thiruvananthapuram, but then it is not Teresa John’s fault.

Nagappan’s insinuation was that Teresa John was working on someone else’s behalf.

Whatever he meant, Vijayan, too, told the Assembly that “there is a tendency among some persons to demean people who carry out political activities. Certain people give in to their demands”.

Teresa John had booked leaders of the CPM-backed union of government employees for vandalising an SBI office opposite the state secretariat during the recent Bharat bandh. This was not to the liking of the state CPM leadership.

But the action against the officer has not gone down well with the public.