kerala police | SabrangIndia News Related to Human Rights Sat, 20 Mar 2021 08:55:38 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.2 https://sabrangindia.in/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Favicon_0.png kerala police | SabrangIndia 32 32 Kerala Police file FIR against Enforcement Directorate team probing gold smuggling case https://sabrangindia.in/kerala-police-file-fir-against-enforcement-directorate-team-probing-gold-smuggling-case/ Sat, 20 Mar 2021 08:55:38 +0000 http://localhost/sabrangv4/2021/03/20/kerala-police-file-fir-against-enforcement-directorate-team-probing-gold-smuggling-case/ Team is accused of pressuring key accused Swapna Suresh to falsely implicate CM Pinarayi Vijayan

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Image Courtesy:hindustantimes.com

It is election season in Kerala and almost all decisions of the government are subject to be read in that light. The latest is Kerala police’s action against a group of Enforcement Directorate officials. A first move of its kind. According to a report in The Telegraph, they have been booked and accused of “applying mental pressure” on  the gold-smuggling accused Swapna Suresh to “falsely implicate Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan”.

On Wednesday, the crime branch had filed an FIR on the basis of an audio clip in which a woman reportedly “suggests that ED officials had tried to force her to name Vijayan”. The FIR comes at a time the Congress and the BJP have been using the charges against Sivasankar to point a finger at Vijayan. According to The Telegraph, their police sources said Swapna had confirmed to crime branch investigators that the voice was hers. While the accused ED officials are understood to be based in Kerala the FIR, filed in Ernakulam, does not name them or say how many people are involved, stated the news report. However, it does mention that Swapna had allegedly faced this “coercion during her ED interrogation on August 12 and 13 last year”.

The sensational gold smuggling case had made headlines since it was first reported. The accused Swapna was allegedly involved in smuggling 30kg gold, worth Rs 14.82 crore. She, a former secretary with the consul general, is accused of “using her connections with local authorities” to help smuggle the gold from Dubai. Swapna was arrested soon after, and remains in the custody of the various central agencies probing the case or in judicial custody reported TT.

Earlier this month, The Indian Express reported that the Customs had informed the Kerala High Court that Swapna Suresh had “stated with clarity about smuggling of foreign currency at the instance of” Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan. The report also mentioned that Sumit Kumar, Commissioner of Customs (Preventive), Kochi, filed an affidavit in the High Court adding further claims of “the improper and illegal activities of three Ministers of the State Cabinet and the Speaker”. 

It was for the first time that Customs made such an allegation against the Chief Minister, sending the political circles into a tizzy. The CPM state secretariat had stated that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was “upset over the image of the Chief Minister and the government”. The CPM added that “investigating agencies have stooped to the level of campaign tools. Kerala would give a fitting reply to the challenge thrown by the BJP-Congress combine. The Customs action is a blatant violation of the poll code and a misuse of investigating agencies… Those who are engaged in cheap politics should realise that this is Kerala.” On the other hand, the Opposition Congress and BJP, sought the resignation of the Chief Minister.

The 35-second audio clip was leaked to the media on November 19 last year, reported TT. In it a woman is reportedly heard saying: “What my lawyer told me today is that the statement submitted before the court states that I had gone to the UAE with (suspended IAS officer) Sivasankar in October and did financial negotiations for the CM. They (the investigators) are asking me to ratify that (statement in court) to make me an approver. When I said I would never do that, I was told they would come to jail and force me again.” The woman has not been identified. The clip mentions the CM and M. Sivasankar, who was then secretary at the chief minister’s office. Sivasankar, was among those arrested in the case, and was later granted bail, stated the Telegraph.

Now, the accused ED officials have been booked on the charges of framing people with incorrect documents, fabricating evidence, giving false evidence, abetment and criminal conspiracy. Conviction can bring a jail term of up to seven years stated news reports. According to the report, the two policemen deployed for Swapna’s security during the ED interrogation have given written submissions to the police stating they overheard an ED official named Radhakrishnan pressuring Swapna to name the chief minister.  Another prime accused in the case, Sandeep Nair, recently submitted a handwritten letter to a sessions judge in Ernakulam alleging coercion by a “Mr Radhakrishnan”. According to TT, Nair, a BJP worker, said he had been offered a good lawyer and a promise not to oppose his bail application.  

Meanwhile, as the Kerala Assembly Elections 2021 approached two UDF legislators quit soon after the Kerala Congress (M) faction led by senior leader PJ Joseph and former Union Minister PC Thomas’ Kerala Congress decided to merge into a single entity ‘Kerala Congress’. PJ Joseph and his colleague Mons Joseph, both sitting UDF legislators, resigned on Friday. According to the news report, both had in fact agreed to contest the April 6 Assembly elections. They reportedly quit based on legal advice that “to avoid any future complications, it would be better if they quit and submit their nominations” stated the news reports.

Divisions within political sides, Left, Right, Centre, have slowly begun to come into the public eye. Potential candidates are making their opinions heard, and those who feel unheard are no longer demure about switching parties.  The last big name to quit the Left, and join the Congress was E A Sankaran. Sankaran had reportedly said that he “quit CPM after I C Balakrishnan promised to field him in Sultan Bathery as Congress candidate…”

Related

SC to hear plea seeking stay on the sale of electoral bonds on March 24
SC to examine whether gold smuggling is terrorist act under UAPA
Kerala: Left leader E A Sankaran returns to Congress, while Church leaders meet RSS
Kerala’s political climate is hotting up as election season approaches

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Police fuelling Systemic Communalism in Kerala? https://sabrangindia.in/police-fuelling-systemic-communalism-kerala/ Thu, 06 Aug 2020 08:57:18 +0000 http://localhost/sabrangv4/2020/08/06/police-fuelling-systemic-communalism-kerala/ Allegations of communal bias in response to and treatment of cases involving Muslims

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Kerala Police
Representation Image

In a recent and unusual stride, the Kerala Police have drawn fierce criticism for their prejudice against the Muslims. Kanhangad Police in Kasargod district had issued a notice to all mosque committees under its sub-division asking them to check the criminal background of their employees before appointing them in madrassas and other religious institutions.

The notice was issued in the context of the alleged sexual abuse of a 16-year-old girl by her father, a madrassa teacher at Kottappuram, Neeleshwaram. The notice was issued to police sub-divisions of Bakel, Kanhangad, Rajapuram, Cheemeni, Neeleshwaram, Chandera and Vellarikkund. The notice demands the mosque committee to appoint the teachers and other employees in their institutions only after verifying their criminal backgrounds. It further asks to report to the Police if any employees are involved in any criminal activities. The Kanhangad DSP MP Vinod said that the accused already has criminal cases registered against him and the notice was issued only in a precautious sense. The notice was withdrawn after severe criticism from the civil society.

Prejudice and bias of the Police have alleged before, but it is for the first time in Kerala; a notice is issued by the Police stereotyping and discriminating against an entire community. Sexual abuse cases involving religious persons (from different communities) have taken place in Kerala previously. The cases of Robin Vadakkumcherry, the former priest convicted of raping a minor girl and allegedly pressured the family to take the case back and Jalandhar Bishop Franco Mulakkal who have allegedly raped a nun are few among them. However, no stereotyping took place in the ‘other’ cases; at the time, the Police are accused of mishandling of sexual abuse cases in many instances. The Palathay minor rape case involving Padmarajan, a local BJP leader and a school teacher who stands accused of sexually abusing a class four student in a school in Palathayi, Thalassery, Kannur being one of such instances.

In a different incident, in Kuttiady, Kozhikode on July 31, the Police have allegedly assaulted the Narayankadu Juma Masjid executives, Imam Sulaiman Musliar and a staff Shareef inside the mosque accusing them of violating lockdown restrictions. The mosque executives alleged that they went to the mosque to post a notice informing the people that there would not be Eid prayers as the locality has been declared a containment zone. The imam also alleged that the Police insulted him. However, Kuttiady C. I, P. Vinod denied the allegations, and he said that the news that he had beaten the staff and the imam was false. He also stated that he received information about people engaging in prayers in the mosque despite the Covid-19 restrictions and cases have been registered against eight people present there.  

These prejudicial instances are pointing towards a systematic alienation and targeting of Muslim identities in a different dimension. Muslim persons have been facing discrimination nationwide during the lockdown due to a pervieved association with Tablighi Jamaat. To target an identity, systemically is a severe offence, especially at times when religious hatred and violence are predominantly attacking the secular-democratic nature of the nation. A culprit belonging to a particular identity does not mean an entire community is offenders; particularly when ‘specific communities and identities’ are being targeted.  The police action has only contributed to the escalation of prejudice and hatred towards Muslims in an already hatred ridden society, further normalising the discriminations. Targeting of Muslim identities by the Police are fundamentally challenging the fairness of the state and seeding fear in the minds of minorities.

Systemic bias and prejudice are derived from hatred, and it needs to be understood with the Indian society’s history of communalism. Essentially, hate is subjected within the individual bodies, with serious efforts, it can be transferred into institutions. To disseminate hatred individually and institutionally are far different. Both instances should be treated in their respective gravity. Therefore, the involvement of civilians in the perpetuation of hate and discrimination must be distinguished from a police officer or Police as an institution perpetuating it. Both the offences end in generating the same ‘results’ however, different ‘effects’.

No actions have taken against the police officers involved in the controversial notice; the same is with the Kuttiady incident. Most of all, the matter was not brought into the discourse except by a few media organisations. The government, nor the Police department have so far made any comments, which undermines the issue. To maintain an offence as a taboo will not do any good to the society, on the other hand, it will only escalate the socio-political inequalities prevailing in a society.

Indoctrination of communalism by the state forces must be analysed in the milieu of rising Hindutwa forces. The fundamentalist Hindutva ideology, which is challenging to the traditional Hinduism, is empowered with their roots in the state apparatuses. The semi-feudal social system of India has been accommodating to the penetration of Hindutwa forces. The deep-rooted hatred towards Muslims and Dalits along with ethno-religious centric hyper-nationalism constitutes the foundation of Hindutva.

As for now, it has succeeded in domesticating various state apparatuses for its murky agendas. The alleged involvement of Delhi police during the recent CAA protests, Delhi pogrom and in the further investigations are standard examples for this. Furthermore, atrocities against Dalits by the state Polices has also been on the rise, the Police brutalities against a Dalit couple in Guna, Madhya Pradesh is a recent case.  The sooner the institutional influences of the Hindutva are addressed, the better it will convey justice.

The communal bias of law enforcement agencies has always been an issue in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, New Delhi, and other Right-wing dominated states. The orientation of Kerala Police towards the same path is worrisome. The partiality of Kerala Police has been in question previously, when Alan and Thala, two Muslim students were arrested on the grounds of UAPA charges in November 2019. To perpetuate discrimination against any community is contrary to the constitution of India. When the offenders are from the law enforcement bodies who are supposed to be impartial, the problem becomes stern. As long as the issue is taken seriously and appropriate means are adopted to prevent further communal attitudes and behaviours from the Police, it will be a burden to the secular fabric of the nation. The matter shall be addressed fairly, and the constitutional offenders must be brought into justice.

 

Related:

Kerala govt stops publishing of marriage notices on website

Kerala rapist demands parole to marry survivor; ploy to escape justice?

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Two Kerala cops get death penalty for custodial murder https://sabrangindia.in/two-kerala-cops-get-death-penalty-custodial-murder/ Thu, 26 Jul 2018 10:17:36 +0000 http://localhost/sabrangv4/2018/07/26/two-kerala-cops-get-death-penalty-custodial-murder/ They tortured Udayakumar to force a confession out of him, beating him mercilessly with cane sticks on his legs and later rolling down a heavy iron pipe down his thighs. The post-mortem revealed that he received more than 40 injuries on his thighs and lower abdomen.   Thiruvananthapuram: In 2005, A 26-year-old Udayakumar was tortured […]

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They tortured Udayakumar to force a confession out of him, beating him mercilessly with cane sticks on his legs and later rolling down a heavy iron pipe down his thighs. The post-mortem revealed that he received more than 40 injuries on his thighs and lower abdomen.

Custodial Death
 
Thiruvananthapuram: In 2005, A 26-year-old Udayakumar was tortured by police officers in Kerala for a crime he did not commit. He was beaten in custody with a heavy iron log rolled over his thighs and his feet thrashed with sticks. He died the next day. The case had become popular by the name ‘urutti kola,’ (rolling death) in the state.
 
In a first, A special CBI court in Thiruvananthapuram awarded the death penalty to K Jithakumar and SV Sreekumar, two civil police officers of the Kerala Police, for the custodial torture and eventual death of Udayakumar. A fine of Rs. 2 lakh each has also been imposed on the two.
 
“The CBI Special Judge Nazar handed down the capital punishment to the accused. The judge said he found no mitigating circumstances to reduce the quantum of punishment. “Law enforcers are protectors of life and property and not death dealers. The accused had killed an innocent person in their custody,” he said. Justice Nazar ruled the crime fell in the rarest of the rare category that deserved death. Their illegal actions had severely eroded public trust in the law enforcement and caused social harm,” reported The Hindu.
 
“The court also awarded three years’ imprisonment to three others accused — retired superintendent of police TK Haridas, and deputy superintendents of police Ajith Kumar and EK Sabu — for trying to cover up the crime and destroying evidence. All three were granted bail by the court. On Tuesday, the five were found guilty by the court,” reported The Hindustan Times. They had also falsified police station records.
 
“The victim’s 67-year-old single-mother, Prabhavathi Amma, was in court, clad in white, to hear the verdict. The accused officers wept as they listened to the order,” reported The Hindu.
 
His mother has fought relentlessly for 13 years and was broke down in tears after the verdict. “I lived all these years to hear this verdict. I am satisfied now. No mother should undergo my plight. Hope this will act as a strong deterrent against police brutality,” she told the press.
 
“Parvathy Amma thanked the media for the outpouring of social support their coverage of the case had triggered. She said no other mother should suffer her fate. “They killed my son during an Onam 13 years ago. Now they will spend their Onam in prison. No court will pardon them. They killed an innocent man. God has heard a mother’s prayer”, she said.
 
“The case has come as a legal victory for the CBI. It had bolstered its case against the local police by flipping seven suspect officers, who were present at the station on the day of the crime, in favour of the prosecution. It also relied heavily on sworn statements of crime scene experts and forensic doctors,” The Hindu reported.
 
“Udayakumar, 27, and his friend Suresh were picked up by officers of the Fort Police station in Thiruvananthapuram on September 27, 2005, from the Sreekandeshwaram Park in the city on charges of theft. Cash amounting to Rs. 4500, found in the possession of Udayakumar, was seen as grounds for the duo to be taken into custody. Two constables then tortured Udayakumar to force a confession out of him, beating him mercilessly with cane sticks on his legs and later rolling down a heavy iron pipe down his thighs. This act of third-degree torture by the Kerala Police later came to be known as ‘urutti kola’ (rolling murder) in the local media,” reported The Indian Express. His friend Suresh was a history-sheeter who had a record of petty thefts.
 
“The post-mortem revealed that he received more than 40 injuries on his thighs and lower abdomen. The trial hit several snags in its course as several key witnesses turned hostile. The CBI took over the investigation in 2008 after the mother moved the high court with a plea to hand over the case to the central agency, alleging that the state police were dragging their feet in the probe,” HT reported.
 
“The case touched a raw nerve among people because of Parvathy Amma’s protracted and determined legal battle to bring to justice the killers of her only son. It had also prompted a public discussion on police brutality and led to widespread condemnation of third-degree methods,” The Hindu reported.
 

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