Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan.
Credit: PTI Photo
Alappuzha/Thiruvananthapuram: The Crime Branch (CB), probing the alleged assault on Youth Congress-KSU workers by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's gunman and security officials during the Nava Kerala yatra in Alappuzha last December, has given them a clean chit, and the Congress voiced its strong protest against it.
In the final report submitted before the judicial first class magistrate court in Alappuzha, the CB stated that the police officials--Anil Kumar and Sandeep--were merely carrying out their professional responsibilities by preventing the two Youth Congress-KSU workers, Ajay Jewel Kuriakose and A D Thomas, from rushing towards the vehicle of the Chief Minister, who comes under Z-plus category security cover.
The deputy superintendent of the crime branch in Alappuzha submitted that the case may be removed from the file, by considering it a mistake of fact.
Fuming at the police's move, KPCC president K Sudhakaran stated that the crime branch's action of submitting a report exonerating the Chief Minister's gunman and security personnel, who surrounded and assaulted Youth Congress workers during the Nava Kerala yatra is a challenge to the rule of law.
He noted that Youth Congress state secretary Kuriakose and KSU Alappuzha district president Thomas sustained serious injuries due to 'police brutality.'
He claimed that the Chief Minister's gunman and other security personnel brutally assaulted the workers of the Kerala Students Union (KSU) and the Youth Congress, and videos of this incident are still available on social media.
"The assault, in which the Chief Minister's security officials held them down and beat them, was witnessed by the public through visual media. That horrific scene has not faded from the collective memory of Kerala," Sudhakaran alleged.
Despite this, the CB, in its report, which is devoid of credibility, claimed that the videos could not be obtained, thereby protecting the accused security personnel. "The Congress will respond to this," Sudhakaran added.