Thiruvananthapuram: Congress leadership on Saturday condemned Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's gunman Anil beating Youth Congress activists who had protested in Alappuzha. Criticising the CM, Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan accused him of having a "sadist mindset".
He asked whether nobody has the right to stage a protest against the government and the CM in Kerala. “Vijayan's security personnel attacked the student protesters with a heavy stick. Criminals in the police force has been escorting the CM as his bodyguards," he alleged.
In the visuals broadcast by TV channels, CM's gunman Anil was seen brutally lathi-charging the protesters who tried to block the bus carrying the CM and his cabinet. By intervening in the duty of the local police, Anil broke the protocol, experts said. Though the local police controlled the protesters, the gunman and other security officials who escorted the special bus stopped their vehicle and beat up the protesters.
Satheesan warned that such officers would not be able to move out of their homes if the Congress activists decided to take law into their hands.
KPCC chief K Sudhakaran also heavily criticised the CM over the issue and alleged that his bodyguards and gunmen were a "group of hardened criminals" in the police. He also questioned the CM for justifying the assault on Youth Congress activists as a 'rescue mission'.
The Congress leaders alleged that the police and his security staff brutally thrashed Youth Congress workers who protested democratically.
(With PTI inputs)
