Special team to investigate ‘rescue operations’, led by A P Shoukathali, who arrested Kodi Suni in T P Case

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A special team has been formed to reinvestigate attacks on congress leaders during Nava Kerala Sadas led by former chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan in Alappuzha. A team led by Crime Branch SP A P Shoukathali is in charge of the investigation. The team includes five officers, including the DySP. The report has been asked to be submitted within 15 days. The decision to reinvestigate was taken in the first cabinet meeting after the oath-taking function yesterday.

The Alappuzha Magistrate Court, which rejected the crime branch's action to acquit gunman Anil Kumar and security guard Sandeep, had ordered a re-investigation into the case on November 8, 2024. However, the previous government had not taken steps for this.

On December 15, 2023, the gunmen brutally beat Youth Congress and KSU activists who had waved black flags at the bus belonging to the Nava Kerala Sadas in Alappuzha. Pinarayi government justified the act as rescue operations and this had stoked a major controversy. KSU district president A D Thomas and Youth Congress state secretary Ajay Jewel Kuriakose were brutally beaten. A D Thomas is presently an elected MLA from the Alappuzha constituency.

Shoukathali is a police officer who took Kodi Suni and his gang, the accused in the TP murder case, into custody from their hideout. He was also the one who stopped CPM Kozhikode district secretary P Mohanan in the middle of the road and arrested him in the TP case. With this, he became a thorn in the side of the CPM.