Thrissur Pooram row: Special branch report holds cops responsible

Thrissur: A special branch report against Thrissur City Police Commissioner Ankit Asokan is known to have been handed over to the Home Department. In the report, the IPS officer is accused of deliberately creating problems and taking off the sheen of the much revered Thrissur Pooram. The latest order issued transferring the officer within the initial stage of the investigation hunts at him being at fault. 

Apparently, officers who hold close connection with Thrissur and the Pooram were kept off from the Pooram duty, raising several eyebrows. The special branch report demands an investigation into all these allegations. The actions of the IPS officer disgraced the entire police force, the report claims. The way things transpired, cops who toiled hard for the smooth conduct of the festival also had to face the wrath of the people eventually. The lathi charge on the Pooram day was definitely avoidable, but it just turned into another episode of police high handedness. Ankit Asokan had purportedly ordered for a lathi charge during the Pooram at the Vadakkumnathan temple premises the previous year as well. 

In addition to these accusations, a few cops are also blamed for booking rooms in luxury hotels in the city completely free of cost during the festival days. They take the name of top ranked cops and get multiple rooms booked in their names. A probe will be launched into such incidents also.