Kerala Cabinet orders multi-tiered probe into Thrissur Pooram disruption

Cabinet orders constitution of a special investigation team headed by ADGP, Crime Branch, H. Venkatesh, to probe Pooram-related cognisable offences revealed in M.R. Ajith Kumar’s report

The Kerala Cabinet has ordered a multi-tiered probe into the disruption of the iconic Thrissur Pooram festival. 

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said State Police Chief (SPC) Sheikh Darvesh Saheb would investigate Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Law and Order, M.R. Ajith Kumar’s “failure” in ensuring the festival’s smooth conduct.

Mr. Vijayan said Mr. Saheb had found Mr. Ajith Kumar’s enquiry report about Thrissur Pooram disruption wanting and pointed to flaws in policing headed by the ADGP.

The Cabinet ordered the constitution of a special investigation team (SIT) headed by ADGP, Crime Branch, H. Venkatesh, to probe Pooram-related cognisable offences revealed in Mr. Ajith Kumar’s report.

Mr. Vijayan signalled that the Communist Party of India’s (CPI) demand to remove Mr. Ajith Kumar from the top post for allegedly parleying in secret with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leadership might have to wait.

The government had last month launched a high-level probe against the ADGP, primarily based on the accusation that the police had scuttled Thrissur Pooram to stoke Hindu resentment and advantage the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Thrissur Lok Sabha elections.

It had also ordered an anti-corruption enquiry against the officer for alleged illegal wealth amassment.

Mr. Vijayan said the government would take appropriate action based on the facts unearthed by the multiple probes against Mr. Ajith Kumar.

He said the Thrissur Pooram disruption was evidence of an attempt to impair Kerala’s social atmosphere with an eye on the Lok Sabha elections. (The CPI, the Congress, and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) stated the same earlier.) 

‘Impossible demands’

He said the ADGP’s report noted that some quarters involved in the festival’s organisation had made impossible demands that were not permissible by law.

Their demands contravened the Kerala High Court’s rigid strictures in the wake of the Puttingal fireworks tragedy that claimed 111 lives in Kollam in 2016.

Mr. Vijayan said that some of the festival organisers’ stipulations for the smooth conduct of Pooram brazenly infringed laws governing the transportation, stocking, and use of hazardous materials, chiefly the explosives used for Thrissur Pooram’s famed pyrotechnics display.

Mr. Vijayan said the 200-year-old Thrissur Pooram transcended religion, caste and community in Kerala. “The government was duty-bound to protect the unifying celebration’s integrity and secular and inclusive character,” he said.

He said the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, flooding in 1930, the Second World War in 1939 and Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination in 1948 had prompted successive administrations to scale down the celebrations and restrict the festivals to rituals.

Published - October 03, 2024 04:02 pm IST