The Kerala Government has sought legal opinion to prosecute Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) M.R. Ajith Kumar on the charge of heading an “entrenched effort” to scuttle the investigation against former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s personal security detail accused of wantonly assaulting Youth Congress black flag protestors in Alappuzha in November 2023.
Officials said Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala has referred the legally and politically fraught question to the State Advocate General (AG)’s office based on a statement of facts filed by the charging officer in the case, Baiju Paulose, in the Alappuzha district court in June.
Mr. Paulose told the court that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case had come across instances of brazen subversion of law, including “framing of incorrect records, suppression and substitution of evidence” on the part of “previous investigating and supervisory officers” to “shield the accused from prosecution and disciplinary action.” The court filing reportedly did not name any officer. However, Mr. Ajith Kumar was the ADGP Law and Order at the time and had come under attack from the Congress, which was then in the Opposition.
The injured Youth Congress workers, A.D. Thomas, currently the Alappuzha MLA, and Ajay Juel Kuriakose, backed by the Congress party, had pivoted against Mr. Ajith Kumar, accusing him of sabotaging the investigation and demanding that the government prosecute the officer, lest the UDF government risk appearing to shield him.
The UDF government had suspended the security personnel involved in the incident in May. However, in Mr. Ajith Kumar’s case, All India Service rules restrict the State Government’s power to suspend or prosecute an IPS officer, as concurrence from the Central Government is required. Meanwhile, the accused officers and the LDF opposition have termed the case politically motivated and maintained that the protection detail had acted well within the bounds of the law.
The SIT’s report has political ramifications, given that the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government had “theorised” that the Youth Congress protestors had sought to imperil Mr. Vijayan by attacking the specially designed bus ferrying Mr Vijayan and his then Cabinet colleagues to the State-sponsored Nava Kerala Sadas function in the district.
However, the SIT appointed by the succeeding United Democratic Front (UDF) government debunked the previous government’s claim by telling the court that Mr. Vijayan’s security detail “lacked a defensible reason” to step out of their escort vehicle and attack the protestors who were “successfully detained” by the local police so that Mr Vijayan’s convoy could pass unimpeded. The SIT claimed that the convoy had not come under attack and the bus ferrying the cabinet sustained zero damage.
The SIT had also accused the officers of violating Z+ category security protocol, as mandated in the Yellow Book, by physically engaging the demonstrators, thereby forsaking their primary duty to provide proximate security to Mr. Vijayan and, consequently, overstepping their legal bounds.
Published - July 12, 2026 12:12 pm IST