K. Lakshmana is a Kerala Cadre Indian Police Service officer who retired as State Police Chief of Kerala Police in rank of Inspector General of Police. He was sentenced to life imprisonment by a CBI Special Court forty years later, in the case relating to the encounter killing of Arikkad Varghese in the Thirunelli forest in Wayanad on 18 February 1970 Delivering the judgment, CBI Special court judge S Vijay Kumar said the first accused in the case, late CRPF constable P Ramachandran Nair had committed the act of murder on the command of Lakshmana, the second accused, who was the then DYSP. The judge convicted Lakshmana of the offence under Section 302 read with Section 34 of IPC Sangeetha Lakshmana, prominent advocate who practices at the High Court of Kerala, is his daughter. Service record As Dy.S.P in the Anti-Corruption Wing of the Kerala Police in the 1960s, Lakshmana had handled important cases of corruption alleged against Chief Forest Conservatory, Public Works Department, Prisons Department, Directorate of Health Services, Medical Colleges etc. In all these instances, corrupt practices involved were successfully investigated and exposed by this Officer. A significant detection on investigation conducted by Lakshmana was the surprise inspection of spurious X-ray equipments supplied in the State Health Department. Spurious led glass used in the X-ray Screen used in the X-ray rooms in hospitals as protection from radiation by the X-ray technicians were detected from various hospitals. Along with that, spurious protective aprons supplied to those X-ray units for use by technicians was also detected. Lakshmana has been instrumental in curtailing the health hazards caused to such X-ray technicians. The first case of misuse of original genuine Security Paper used to print the currency notes of the Reserve Bank of India, by the counterfeiters of Kerala, after committing theft of the same from the Security Paper Mill of RBI in Hoshangabad was detected by the Counterfeit Squad of the Crime Branch CID Kerala headed by Lakshmana in the 1970s. A member of quack medical practitioners were apprehended and prosecuted by the Crime Branch Team headed by him in the 1970s for the first time in the history of Kerala. In a surprise inspection conducted at the Connemera Market, Palayam, Trivandrum in the 1960s he detected meat of diseased animals infected with TB being sold out as ‘pure mutton’ with forged seal of the Corporation Health Officer. Another detection during