Kochi, Oct 9 ( IANS): A lower court in Kerala has ordered a probe against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for beating Congress-led opposition protestors in 2023 during his bus yatra.

Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate Court has asked the Ernakulam Central police to conduct a probe against the Chief Minister following a complaint filed by the Ernakulam district Congress Committee President Mohammed Shiyas.

In December 2023, Vijayan along with his entire cabinet were travelling in a bus which travelled across the 140 Assembly constituencies. The bus yatra named ‘Nava Kerala Sadas’, was taken out to meet the people and to lay the foundation for building a new Kerala.

However, the Congress-led opposition staged a protest against Vijayan as they alleged that the yatra was a waste of resources. At numerous places, the protesters were mercilessly beaten up by the police while cades of the CPI-M also joined in roughing up the protesters.

The attack on the protesters first became news on the second day of the trip in Vijayan’s home district- Kannur when both the police and the local CPI-M cadres badly beat up the protesters.

At Alappuzha, things went out of control when the Chief Minister’s personal security guard jumped out of the bus and using a big lathi was seen beating up a protesting Youth Congress worker.

However, the Chief Minister at that time said that it was an act of rescue (Reksha Proverthenem) to save the protesters from going under the moving bus.

The police probe team which probed the incident gave a clean chit to the security guard.