Police Superintendent in Kerala Allegedly Gives Contract to Kill Journalist

I am just back from Kerala and here's something else in today's papers - which I scanned on the flight to Bombay - which made me feel weird. Just boggled the mind. I couldn't believe it as I read the news. I know strange things happen in this world, but when was the last time a top official of the police hired a lowly contract killer to  kill a journalist for publishing a story. What's weird is also the fact of how the state is governed by dictats of the police and how this indicates a malady which cannot be dismissed so easily. I think it is the first time such a case is being reported. Pardon my weak memory if it isn't.

In Kerala a contract to kill is given to a gang called a "Quotation Sangham." The term means what it implies. The gang then gives a quotation for carrying out the job, as in any contracts. I think (or, have a feeling) that there is a contract and things are laid down, too. If the need is to maim then they break a leg (a different rate applies), if the aim is to just warn (here, too, a different rate applies). If the aim is to slap a person in public, yes, it can be done, at a separate rate. So the gang gives a quotation and the money is handed over. It's a sick practise and it sickens me to even think about it.  

A policeman, a deputy superintendent of police, according to the case, hired a contract killer to murder a journalist. Yes. DySP Santosh Nair has been arrested allegedly for attacking journalist Unnithan of the newspaper Matrubhumi. Unnithan's fault is that he published a report about Nair attending a party hosted by a liquor baron.

Things must have got rather hot and wild there, as it does most often in parties by the liquor barons.

If the police is too sensitive about being seen at parties thrown by liquor barons, well, the action to be taken is simple enough. Stop attending these parties. Well Mr. Policeman you have been caught in the act. So there!