State Police Chief of Kerala Ravada A. Chandrasekhar on Tuesday constituted a special investigation team (SIT) to carry out an inquiry into the alleged atrocities of police personnel against Youth Congress workers during the Left Democratic Front government’s Navakerala Sadas Vehicle Rally in 2023.

Shoukathali, Superintendent of Police, Crime Branch, Alappuzha, will head the SIT which will have six other members.

Baiju Poulose, DySP, Crime Branch, Ernakulam; Tolson, Inspector of Police, Medical College Police Station; Jayakrishnan, Sub-inspector of Police, Crime Branch Alappuzha; Rajesh, ASI, Alappuzha South Police Station; Deendayal Mallan, SI(G), Crime Branch, Alappuzha; and Amrutharaj S.R., SI(G), DHQ, Alappuzha, are the other members.

The SIT has been tasked to complete the investigation expeditiously within a period of one month from the date of commencement. The SIT head will submit a fortnightly progress report to the SPC.

The Alappuzha South police had in December 2023 registered a case against former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s gunman Anil Kumar and police officer Sandeep S. who allegedly attacked Youth Congress and Kerala Students Union activists in a “brutal” manner in Alappuzha.

The activists who raised slogans against the government when the Navakerala bus, ferrying the State Cabinet to a Navakerala Sadas in the Ambalapuzha Assembly constituency, was passing by General Hospital Junction in Alappuzha sustained injuries after the security personnel with lathis beat them up.

In October 2024, the Crime Branch probing the incident gave the police officers a clean chit. In the final report submitted before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Alappuzha, the CB stated that the police officers were merely carrying out their professional responsibilities by preventing two Youth Congress-KSU activists, Ajay Jewel Kuriakose and A.D. Thomas, from rushing towards the vehicle of the Chief Minister, who comes under Z-plus category security cover.

Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan, addressing the media after the new United Democratic Front government’s first Cabinet meeting on Monday, said that even though the magistrate court in Alappuzha had issued an order for reinvestigation, the LDF government did not take any action in this regard.

He said the UDF government’s actions cannot be interpreted as political vendetta as it was merely carrying out the court’s order by forming the SIT.