In the wake of a barrage of allegations, Kerala Police's controversial Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) MR Ajith Kumar has been stripped of his key responsibility of Law and Order. He will now be in charge solely as the ADGP of Armed Battalions. ADGP Manoj Abraham, who was in charge of Intelligence, has been given the responsibility of Law and Order.

It was alleged that Ajith Kumar had met RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale at Thrissur during an RSS camp in December 2023. He was also accused of having met RSS ideologue Ram Madhav in Thiruvananthapuram a few months before.

PV Anvar, rebel LDF MLA from Nilambur, had leaked a purported audio conversation between him and Superintendent of Police Sujith Das, who has now been suspended. 

The audio clip conversation also raised questions on the political control of police top brass in the state by P Sasi, a powerful figure in the CPI(M), who was suspended from the party in 2011 following a complaint of sexual assault by a woman party colleague.

Anwar had accused ADGP Ajith Kumar of  having links with gold smuggling and tapping phones of ministers and legislators. "Ajith Kumar is linked to a gold smuggling gang and there is a team based in Dubai who acts as police informants providing ticket numbers and even passwords of passengers who act as carriers of smuggled gold. The police would intercept the gold but would only report a fraction of what is seized," Anwar alleged. He also alleged that Ajith Kumar had helped several individuals involved in the Solar Scam case escape justice. Anwar expressed concern that this illicit nexus within the police department is tarnishing the reputation of the CPI(M) as well as Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Read: How ruling front MLA PV Anwar forced Kerala govt to probe police top brass

The action against Ajith Kumar comes after Director General of Police (DGP) S Darvesh Sahib on Saturday, October 5 submitted an inquiry report which was reviewed by the Chief Minister on Sunday. 

Communist Party of India State Secretary Benoy Viswam welcomed the decision to transfer Ajith Kumar from the post of Law and Order ADGP. He said that this was a victory of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government. The CPI had strongly criticised the state government for allowing Ajith Kumar to continue in the post.