Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 24 (PTI) The BJP in Kerala on Friday lashed out at Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for presenting the data of narcotic cases registered in the state based on the religion of the accused and sought to know which agency had compiled the figures.

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The party state chief K Surendran accused the Marxist veteran of allegedly looking for ways to derive political mileage by polarising people.

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"How can a Chief Minister present the data of a crime based on religion? He did not tell which agency has compiled the figures-whether it was the data of the Crime Records Bureau or it was with the Home Department," he told a press meet here.

Stating that it was unbecoming of a person, who heads the state, to come up with such data, he asked whether the state had the precedence of presenting crime figures based on religion.

He also wanted to know how the Chief Minister came to know about the religion of the accused and asked was it from their names that he assumed about it.

"We want to know whether the state government keeps data of crimes based on the religion of the accused...Are the figures, presented by the Chief Minister, authentic? Why did he put such a figure before the people? He should not have done such a thing which would communally polarise people," the BJP chief said.

Surendran also urged the government to address the concerns of the parent community in the state as schools are about to reopen in the state amid the continuing COVID-19 cases.

While answering questions on the controversial "narcotic and love jihad" remarks by Pala Bishop Joseph Kallarangatt, Vijayan on Wednesday said 4,941 cases were registered in the state in 2020 under the NDPS Act and out of the 5,422 accused, 2,700 (49.80 per cent) were Hindus, 1,869 (34.47 per cent) were Muslims and 853 (15.73 per cent) were Christians.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)