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The Kerala Police suspended 5 officers attached to the erstwhile Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s idiosyncratic information item connected Tuesday.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by the Crime Branch charged the officers with overstepping their enactment of authoritative work and unleashing wanton unit against the tiny radical of Youth Congress workers who were detained by the section instrumentality enforcement to forestall them from greeting Mr Vijayan’s Nava Kerala Sadas motorcade with achromatic flags erstwhile it entered Alappuzha successful November 2023.
The constabulary identified the suspended officers arsenic Mr Vijayan’s “gun antheral and aide-de-camp” Anil Kumar, and his subordinates, S Sandeep, Arun, Vipin and Shaiju.
The prosecution’s lawsuit is that the squad “unjustifiably” stepped retired of their escort conveyance aft the air-conditioned luxury manager ferrying Mr Vijayan and his Cabinet colleagues had swept past the point, and caned the roadside protesters, who numbered little than three, and were already successful constabulary custody.
The visuals of the incidental went viral connected societal and accepted media, triggering a governmental storm. Those injured successful the onslaught included A D Thomas, who is presently a legislator representing the Alappuzha constituency.
The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), past successful the Opposition, cried foul, accusing the constabulary of acting arsenic the Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s catspaw. The UDF besides linked the Alappuzha incidental to instances of “vigilante groups” of CPI(M) workers attacking Opposition black-flag protesters arsenic Mr Vijayan’s Nava Kerala Sadas meandered done the State, and made it a large run contented that seemed to person resonated among voters successful Alappuzha successful the Assembly elections.
The UDF attacked Mr Vijayan successful the Assembly for “callously” lauding the constabulary and besides CPI(M) activists arsenic “rescue workers” who risked their lives for redeeming Opposition protestors from the peril of getting tally implicit by the motorcade. He besides denied having seen the visuals of the Alappuzha incidental involving his information detail.
The archetypal probe nether the Left Democratic Front (UDF) authorities sputtered out, with the State constabulary giving the officers a cleanable chit, and terming the enactment arsenic justifiable usage of unit to support Mr Vijayan. Subsequently, Congress moved the court, which ordered the registration of a transgression case.
The UDF authorities fast-tracked the lawsuit by appointing a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by SP, Crime Branch, Shoukathali. The SIT reportedly recovered the officials culpable, necessitating their suspension from work pending further inquiry. The accused officers person moved the tribunal for anticipatory bail, claiming that the contentious constabulary enactment fell wrong the bounds of their authoritative work and their “victimisation” was a “political payback”.
