Allegations of grave intelligence and security failures dominated the fallout from the incident on Wednesday
| Photo Credit: NIRMAL HARINDRAN
The Kerala Police have come under intense scrutiny after the violent attack on Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials during a raid a former Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s residence in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday. Allegations of grave intelligence and security failures dominated the fallout from the incident.
The Thiruvananthapuram City police have arrested eight CPI(M) and DYFI workers in connection with the attack thus far. Around 15 people have been identified through television footage, CCTV visuals and intelligence inputs. One accused was apprehended from Kottayam after allegedly fleeing Thiruvananthapuram.
Police teams conducted searches at nearly 40 locations, including residences of former Thiruvananthapuram Corporation councillors and other party workers who are suspected to have participated in the attack.
The Museum Police have registered two cases in connection with the violence. The first one registered against “300 identifiable people” includes charges pertaining to attempt to murder, unlawful assembly destruction of property and assault on officials, while the other was registered for the alleged attack on police personnel during the clash.
The State government has commenced an inquiry into alleged lapses on the part of the police in anticipating the violence and whether crowd-control measures were inadequate. The controversy escalated after senior police and intelligence officials were summoned for a high-level meeting by Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala on Thursday.
The Minister held a nearly 45-minute meeting with State Police Chief Ravada A. Chandrasekhar, ADGP (Intelligence) P. Vijayan and the Home Minister’s adviser A. Hemachandran to review the sequence of events and examine allegations of security failure.
Mr. Chandrasekhar, who interacted with mediapersons later, said the police had deployed sufficient personnel and maintained that around 300 police officers were present in connection with the operation. He stated that the ED raid was conducted independently by the central agency and claimed police had not received any specific request for additional security arrangements.
He, however, acknowledged that the incident would be investigated in detail and added that action would be adopted if any lapses were identified.
Published – May 28, 2026 03:01 pm IST
