Salim Raj, 42, is an ordinary constable in the Kerala Police and has been in custody since September 10 for allegedly attempting to kidnap a couple on a highway. Yet, it appears it is Salim Raj's raj in Kerala. The Kerala High Court says so.
Is Salim Raj, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy's former bodyguard, the state's real Chief Minister whom even the Director-General of Police fears, asked Justice Harul-ul-Rashid of Kerala High Court on October 1, while hearing petitions seeking CBI inquiry into a land grab case. Justice Rashid was particularly disturbed by the state DGP K.S. Balasubramanian, who received a complaint against Raj for alleged land grabbing and forwarded it to the Chief Minister instead of taking action.
The judge's remark followed complaints from many members of the public, the Opposition and even repeated comments by courts about the United Democratic Front (UDF) government's unstinted support to Salim Raj, whenever he landed in trouble.
Salim Raj already faces a number of cases related to land grab, fabrication of records, abduction, among others. He has also been accused of having played a role the solar scam. Three members of Chandy's personal staff - Salim Raj, Tenny Joppan and Jikumon Jacob - who were also his closest confidants for 8 years, were removed from his staff after their links with the accused in the multi-crore solar scam were exposed. But except Joppan, who was arrested, the other two did not face any trouble from the police.
Salim Raj, who belongs to Chandy's home district Kottayam, has been his official "gunman" since 2005 when he was an Opposition leader. Chandy ignored intelligence reports and inducted Salim Raj in 2009 in the Chief Minister's security detail.
Raj's name was not included even in the FIR registered by the police on a land grab case in Kochi in spite of the petitioners pointing him out as the main culprit. In another case, more than 100 families living in Thiruvananthapuram raised identical complaints against Salim Raj and his relatives. In spite of repeated complaints to the revenue officials and the revenue minister and the police, no action was initiated against Raj or his friends and relatives who were allegedly trying to grab their 45 acres of residential land. "I was summoned by Salim Raj to the VVIP suite reserved for ministers in the state government-owned guest house in Trivandrum and threatened with serious consequences if we did not give up our land," said Balu Subramaniam, a complainant.
On August 4, another high court judge wondered about Salim Raj's seemingly enormous powers in the land grab cases against him. Judge V.K. Mohanan reprimanded the police and ordered them to seize Salim Raj's telephone records. But within hours, the government got a stay on the order by a Division Bench. State advocate-general K.P. Dandapani argued that seizing Salim Raj's phone records would be an assault on his privacy.
On September 2, the Division bench while hearing the same, slammed the state government for not submitting the land records in English and wondered if it was serious in the case against Salim Raj.
On September 5, the state government came to defend Salim Raj in yet another case related to the solar scam. The state filed an affidavit saying Raj had no involvement in the case. This was after he was removed from CM's staff following media reports about the number of calls he had made to the accused in the scam. Salim Raj was then exonerated by the Special Investigation Team which probes the solar scam.
This created a furore in the state with the Opposition LDF and BJP over the suspended constable's clout with the government.
Salim Raj, confident of his protectors, allegedly attempted to abduct a couple on September 10 in broad daylight on a highway. Seeing the ruckus on the highway, a lot of people gathered around them. Raj threatened the locals by flashing his police ID card. The angry public did not relent and refused to let Salim Raj and others leave until the police came and took them away. He has since been in custody after his bail application was rejected twice by the sessions court.
The government and the chief minister were relieved to know that Justice Harul-ul-Rashid, on the first day he heard the arguments in the solar scam, wondered why Chandy was being dragged into the case. The solar scam is related to cheating crores of rupees from many people by falsely promising solar panels and equities in non-existent solar and wind farms.
But on October 1, the state government received a blow from Justice Rashid when he slammed it by asking why a constable was as powerful as if he was the real chief minister.
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