7 hours ago
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The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing erstwhile Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s idiosyncratic information detail for the battle connected Youth Congress’s black-flag protesters successful Alappuzha successful November 2023 claimed to person uncovered an “entrenched effort” connected the portion of the highest levels of instrumentality enforcement to insulate the accused officers from ineligible jeopardy.
In a connection of information submitted astatine the District and Sessions Court successful Alappuzha, the charging officer, M. Baiju Paulose, claimed that the SIT had travel crossed instances of brazen subversion of law, including “framing of incorrect records, suppression and substitution of evidence” connected the portion of “previous investigating and supervisory officers” to “shield the accused from prosecution and disciplinary action.”
No ‘defensible reason’
Mr Paulose deposed that the officers lacked a “defensible reason“ to measurement retired of their escort conveyance and onslaught the protesters who were “successfully detained” by the section constabulary to forestall them from waving achromatic flags astatine the specially designed autobus ferrying Mr Vijayan and his past Cabinet colleagues to the State-sponsored Nava Kerala Sadas relation successful the district.
The SIT accused the officers of violating Z+ class information protocol, arsenic mandated successful the Yellow Book, by physically engaging the demonstrators and thereby forsaking their superior work to supply proximate information to Mr Vijayan and, consequently, overstepping their ineligible bounds.
Bus was not nether attack
The SIT besides sought to puncture the erstwhile administration’s mentation that the demonstrators had sought to imperil Mr Vijayan by attacking his autobus with stones and sticks. It told the tribunal that the operator had testified that the VIP conveyance was not nether onslaught astatine the clip and that the autobus sustained nary damage. The SIT claimed that the information item had attacked the Youth Congress protesters good aft Mr Vijayan’s convoy swept past the point.
The SIT submitted ocular records of the events, the statements of the injured Youth Congress workers, A.D. Thomas, presently the Alappuzha MLA, Ajay Juel Kuriakose, the section instrumentality enforcement, neighbourhood traders, and quality camerapersons who recorded the alleged assault, to bolster their lawsuit against the information officers, arsenic worldly grounds successful court. The SIT besides submitted successful court, citing State forensic experts, that the battle had resulted successful grievous and perchance fatal injuries.
The accused successful the lawsuit are Anil Kumar, caput of the plainclothes squad, S. Sandeep, V K Shaiju, Arun R, and V V Vipin. The SIT has charged them with a wilful effort to perpetrate culpable homicide, causing grievous wounded and shared intent to unleash unit arsenic per the sections of the law.
Politically motivated: suspects
The suspects person moved the tribunal for anticipatory bail, stating that they had discharged their lawful work to support the “Principal VIP nether Z+ information category”, successful this case, Mr Vijayan. They besides alleged successful tribunal that the SIT’s lawsuit against them was politically motivated.
The prosecution has opposed their bail connected the grounds that the accused mightiness power witnesses and effort to tamper with evidence.
