Kerala police book BJP leader R Sreelekha over ‘drug’ remark on Rahul Gandhi

Police in Punalur, Kollam district, on Friday, 16 October, registered a case against BJP leader and former Kerala Director General of Police R Sreelekha over remarks about Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, according to The Statesman and The Economic Times.

What she said

Sreelekha was speaking at a BJP protest meeting in Punalur organised by the party’s Kollam East district committee against the opposition’s campaign over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Referring to Gandhi’s recent protests in Delhi against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, she compared his conduct to that of someone under the influence of drugs, the reports said. The Statesman quoted her as saying it reflected the “restlessness and frenzy” of excessive drug intake rather than a “thandav”. Onmanorama reported that she also mocked the Congress for carrying copies of the Constitution while protesting alongside people she called “cockroaches”.

Complaints and the FIR

• Youth Congress state vice-president Vishnu Sunil Pandalam complained to the State Police Chief, calling the remarks defamatory and hurtful to religious sentiment, Onmanorama reported.
• Congress leader K S Sabarinadhan filed a similar complaint in Thiruvananthapuram, The Economic Times reported.
• The FIR was registered at Punalur because the speech was made there, under Section 192 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which deals with wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause a riot.
• Police plan to examine video of the event and record her statement after a preliminary inquiry, according to The Economic Times.

Complainants also argued that linking the thandav, a dance associated with Lord Shiva, to narcotics hurt Hindu sentiments. Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala criticised the former officer and sought a public apology, The Statesman reported. None of the reports carried a response from Sreelekha.

Weeks of turbulence

The case follows a period of uncertainty around Sreelekha, who was Kerala’s first woman IPS officer and is now a BJP state vice-president and councillor for Sasthamangalam ward in the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation. According to Organiser, she had submitted a resignation to the Mayor on 30 September citing work pressure, and was later hospitalised. In a video on her YouTube channel on 11 October, she dismissed talk of quitting the party or moving to the Congress, saying she would remain in the BJP “until my last breath”.

Sources: The Statesman, Economic Times (via inkl), Onmanorama, UNI, Organiser