Thiruvananthapuram | Youth Congress activists on Monday staged protests across Kerala demanding the dismissal of policemen accused of brutally assaulting one of their leaders while in custody at the Kunnamkulam police station in Thrissur two years ago.

Police had to use force to disperse the agitators and deployed water cannons repeatedly when they tried to jump barricades in Thiruvananthapuram and Palakkad.

A large number of YC workers, who gathered in front of the Secretariat and the office of the Superintendent of Police in Palakkad, attempted to push away the policemen and move forward.

Some of the protesters even tried to scale the metal compound walls of the Secretariat, but were foiled by the police.

The agitators attempted to pull down the barricades and engaged in heated arguments with the law enforcers, raising slogans against them.

As the protesters refused to disperse, water cannons were used multiple times in front of the Secretariat, disrupting road transport in the area for some time.

A similar situation prevailed in Palakkad, where police had to arrest and remove the Youth Congress activists.

In Kollam, a protest was organised near the house of one of the accused policemen.

Several Youth Congress workers, including women, attempted to jump the barricade placed in front of the police official's house.

Television visuals showed a woman activist jumping the barricade and running towards the house. She was stopped near the gate and removed from the area soon afterwards.

The Congress leadership recently made it clear that they would intensify the agitation until the policemen involved in the custodial torture of V S Sujith, a local leader of the Youth Congress, are dismissed from service.

The CCTV footage from the police station surfaced after Sujith, who was assaulted at the Kunnamkulam police station, obtained it recently through the Right to Information (RTI) Act