The reported decision to return the police probe report into the disruption of the 2024 Thrissur Pooram has been welcomed by Thiruvambady Devaswom, even as the organisation acknowledged that it had not received official confirmation from the Kerala government.
Thiruvambady Devaswom secretary K Gireesh Kumar said the report was understood to have been returned because it was one-sided. He alleged that a conspiracy had disrupted the festival and claimed that some police officers had made persistent efforts to precipitate a crisis before the Pooram’s key ceremonial proceedings.
The disruption reached a flashpoint on the night before ezhunnellippu, according to the devaswom. Organisers were then forced to suspend Pooram activities. The episode placed the conduct of the festival, the role of the police and the accountability of organisers at the centre of a continuing dispute.
Kumar rejected any attempt to hold the devaswom committee office-bearers responsible for the disruption. He said the committee’s members had worked for months to organise the event and described Pooram as the culmination of sustained efforts by office-bearers who had spent numerous sleepless nights preparing it.
The devaswom secretary said its office-bearers had briefed Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala on the sequence of events that led to the suspension of Pooram activities. He welcomed what he described as the minister’s decision to return the police report, saying it indicated that the government had understood the devaswom’s position.
However, Kumar also clarified that he had neither seen the police report nor received any official communication confirming that the government had decided to return it. The reported government action, therefore, remains subject to confirmation from the state authorities or the release of an official document.
The dispute highlights the administrative questions surrounding large public festivals, where organisers, police authorities and the state government share responsibility for crowd management, security and the continuity of scheduled events. In this case, the available account records competing positions but does not establish the findings of the police report or the government’s formal response to it.
Any further determination will depend on an official communication regarding the status of the report, the reasons for returning it and the next steps in the inquiry into the 2024 Thrissur Pooram disruption.
