Kerala Home Minister orders SIT probe into Chevayur bank election violence

Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala has directed the State Police Chief to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the alleged violence during the 2024 Chevayur Service Cooperative Bank election in Kozhikode and complaints regarding lapses on the part of the police in preventing the incident.

The SIT has been directed to conduct a detailed inquiry and submit its report within three weeks, according to sources at the Home Department.

Several incidents of violence were reported during the election held on November 16, 2024. Although the Medical College police had been assigned security responsibilities in accordance with a Kerala High Court directive, various complaints submitted to the Home Minister alleged that the then Assistant Commissioner of Police, Medical College, and other officers failed to effectively prevent the violence.

The complaints, submitted by Kozhikode MP M.K. Raghavan, Kozhikode DCC president K. Praveenkumar and other Congress leaders, also claimed that over 5,000 fake identity cards were used by CPI(M) workers in an attempt to manipulate the election process, sources said.