The Thrissur Pooram probe has come under fresh criticism after CPI functionary V S Sunilkumar rejected the reported Crime Branch findings into the disruption of the 2024 festival and alleged that the investigation had failed to identify the real conspirators.
Sunilkumar said on Thursday that the findings, as reported in the media, were “far from true” and appeared to provide an escape route for those responsible for incidents that led to the suspension of Pooram festivities for several hours. His comments have added a new political and administrative dispute to a case involving one of Kerala’s most prominent public festivals.
According to the report, Sunilkumar alleged that a political conspiracy had been hatched to sabotage Thrissur Pooram. He claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh benefited from the disruption. These allegations were made by Sunilkumar and were not independently established in the report.
Sunilkumar also questioned the role of then Thrissur district collector Krishna Teja, alleging that the collector had played a significant part in precipitating the crisis during the festival. He said the reported Crime Branch findings were silent on both the alleged political conspiracy and the collector’s role.
The dispute places the investigation’s reported conclusions at the centre of a wider question about how responsibility is assigned when a large public event is disrupted. Thrissur Pooram involves multiple stakeholders, including district authorities, police agencies, temple administrations and thousands of visitors and participants. Any disagreement over the official account can therefore affect public confidence in the handling of the festival and its administration.
Office-bearers of Thiruvambady Devaswom have also continued to criticise the reported findings. The devaswom is understood to have objected to the way responsibility was assigned in the investigation. The report said the Crime Branch findings named the office-bearers as accused in the case, though the supplied account does not provide the full details of the allegations or the sections invoked.
Thiruvambady Devaswom secretary Gireesh Kumar said the office-bearers would meet Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, the state home minister and the devaswom minister. The delegation is expected to present what the office-bearers consider shortcomings in the probe findings and seek the government’s attention to their objections.
The latest developments do not establish whether the Crime Branch findings will be reviewed or altered. They show, however, that the reported conclusions have not resolved the dispute over the events that interrupted the 2024 Pooram. The next formal step identified in the report is the proposed meeting between the Thiruvambady Devaswom office-bearers and the state’s senior ministers.
