17/10/2008- Hithin, S/o Sasi, Mammi kandathil House, Aalagad, P.O.Varappuzha, Paravur Thalukk, Ernakulam
18/09/2008- C.C.Varkki, S/o Chakku, Chirayath House, P.O. Puthenpeedika, Valamukku, Thrissur
8/9/2008- Shaju, Kodakkatil House, P.O. Venkidangu, Chavakkad, Thrissur
16/06/08- Firose, S/o Moythutti, Thekkeppattayil House, Thrissur
10/5/2008- Steephan, S/o Kochuvareeth, Pulleli Veetil, P.O. Pattikad, Thrissur, Pin 680 652
5/5/2008-P.M.Subash, S/o Mohanan, Pakkath House, P.O.Porkkalengad, Thalappilly, Thrissur
5/5/2008-M.P.Sumesh, S/o Pushpakaran, Maniyanthra House,P.O.Kunnamkulam, Thrissur
5/5/2008-K.K.sajeesh, Kottarapatt House, P.O.Porkkalengad, Aarthatt, Thrissur
5/5/2008-C.M.Manikandan, S/o Madhavan, choondupurakkal House, P.O.Porkkalengad, Aanaakkal, Thrissur
CASE DETAILS:
On 23 April 2008 at about 9pm Kuttan was waiting for a three-wheeler to go home. Kuttan was sitting on the ground beside a small wall constructed near the Padiyath Service Centre at the Cherpu - Chovoor public road. Kuttan was on his way back home after attending a local temple festival at Pootharakkal. Pootharakkal is about two kilometers away from where Kuttan was sitting. Before waiting for the three-wheeler Kuttan had food and drinks from a neighbouring bar.
While Kuttan was waiting for the three-wheeler, a person in police uniform approached him and asked him why he was sitting there. The officer identified as a police constable stationed at Cherpu Police Station. The officer further asked Kuttan where his house was and whether he was employed. For the questions, Kuttan answered that he was waiting for a three-wheeler to come and that his house was at Chovoor and further that he was working at the furniture workshop owned by Mr. Sadanandan. The furniture workshop is near Chovoor.
Hearing this, without any provocation the officer shouted abuses at Kuttan and tried to lift Kuttan up holding him by his shirt. The officer pushed Kuttan on to the ground shouting at him that why he was working at Sadanandan's furniture workshop. Kuttan fell down on the ground, face down. The officer them assaulted Kuttan using his baton and also kicked him. (Please see photo 1 and photo 2)
Kuttan started bleeding from the injuries that he sustained from the fall and from the assault. By the time Kuttan was on the public road and was crying out to the officer not to assault him. Soon Kuttan lost his consciousness. He regained consciousness after a while and he found that he was seated on the roadside and somebody had kept him in a sitting position with his back leaning a telephone post. This place was about 5-6 meters away from where Kuttan had fallen down.
When he regained consciousness Kuttan realised that he has suffered severe injuries from the assault and that he was bleeding from the injuries caused to him from the fall and from the assault. He also felt severe pain all over his body. Unable to go home due to pain, Kuttan spent the night in the varanda of a shop nearby. The next day morning Kuttan went to his employer and informed him what happened to him the previous night. Kuttan then went to the Cherpu Government Hospital along with his friend. The medical officer at Cherpu hospital referred Kuttan to the District Government Hospital for further treatment.
However, soon Kuttan started vomiting blood. He was later admitted at the Mulankunathukavu Medical College Hospital. At the hospital, the doctors have diagnosed that Kuttan has suffered several injuries on his body, including lacerated wounds above his right earlobe and other aberrations all over his body as if he was injured while being dragged around on a rough surface. The medical certificate also shows that Kuttan has suffered blunt trauma injuries as if those inflicted by a blunt edged weapon.
It is reported that the Cherpu police had a previous incident where Sadanandan, Kuttan's employer, had complained about the police officers stationed at the Cherpu Police Station, in which the officers had to publically apologise to Sadanandan. It is suspected that the constable who assaulted Kuttan was one among the police officers who was involved in this earlier dispute with Kuttan's employer. Even though Kuttan does not know the name of the officer who assaulted him, he is able to identify the officer on sight.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
It is common practice in Kerala for the police officers to quiz around people during evening hours. Incidents of theft, which is in record high numbers in Kerala, is posed as an excuse for police officers to conduct random check among the public. However, this opportunity is often misused by police officers. Cases where police officers assault persons to instill fear among the local public as part of this questioning are also reported from Kerala in high numbers. In fact law enforcement in Kerala and rest of India has become the synonym of use of unwarranted force by law enforcement agencies.
The local police however deny these incidents and often pose resistance by a suspects as an excuse for use of force. These days more and more cases implicating police officers in Kerala and their connection with criminal elements in the state involved in fraud, murder, rape, women trafficking and bootlegging are being exposed in the local media.
This week, the Kerala State Police Association is holding its annual conference at Thrissur. The police have used their influence to eruct sponsorship posters throughout the town from private enterprises in support of the conference. Nervazhy had also posted a poster of its own in front of the conference venue in a public place, demanding the police association to discuss issues concerning use of force and torture as one of the subjects of the conference. The poster was however removed by unknown persons within a day.
25/04/2008- Kuttan, S/o Chathan, Tharayil House, Somanroad, P.O.Chovvur, Thrissur
20/03/2008- T.V.Prabhadh, S/o Velayudhan Master, MurigatheriHouse, P.O. Nelluvay, Thalappilly, Thrissur
CASE DETAILS:
Mr. Binish is aged 19, and is from a poor family from Alappuzha district in Kerala state. Binish is from the Pulaya (Scheduled Caste) community, a Dalit (untouchable) community in India. Binish is deaf since birth. Binish works as an apprentice in a local workshop near his house.
On 28 February 2008, at about 3pm Binish left home to the nearby Kanichukulangara temple. Binish went to the temple on his bicycle. When the parents found that Binish had not returned home even after nightfall, they became concerned about Binish. They started looking for Binish in the nearby places, but could not find him.
On next day, at about 2:30am on the next day the parents lodged a complaint at the nearby Arthungal Police Station alleging that Binish was missing. At about 3pm Binish returned home in a three-wheeler along with his bicycle. According to Binish's parents, Binish appeared to be in a bad state of health suffering from external and internal injuries. When the parents enquired with Binish what had happened to him, Binish explained that while he was returning home he was taken into custody by police officers from Pattanakadu Police Station. Binish used sign language to communicate.
According to the statement given by Binish, while he was returning home from the temple he lost his direction. While he was searching around for the road to his house, he was stopped by police officers from Pattanakadu Police Station who came in a police vehicle. The police officers who stepped out from the vehicle started asking Binish questions. But Binish, as he was deaf, neither could understand what the officers were asking, nor could explain to them his situation.
When the officers found that Binish was not answering the questions one officer slapped him on his face. Then the police officers started forcing Binish to enter the police vehicle. Binish resisted and even tried to escape, but could not succeed. The officers tied Binish's hands and legs with a rope and threw him into the police vehicle. Soon the vehicle reached Pattanakadu Police Station.
At the police station, the officers removed the rope with which Binish was tied up. The officers started questioning Binish, but Binish could not understand what was being asked and could not communicate to the officers. He tried explaining to the officers through sign language that he is deaf. The officers did not believe him. Then the officers burned his toes with cigarette flames. Later they caned Binish trying to force him to speak. Not satisfied with this, the officers brought camphor pellets and forced Binish to hold it in his palms. Then the officers set the pellets on fire, burning Binish's palms. While Binish was forced to hold the burning camphor pellets in his palms, the officers assaulted him. Finally Binish collapsed not being able to bear anymore pain.
Later Binish was taken to a hospital, of which Binish cannot remember the name, where, he was given some medicine. Later the officers realising that Binish cannot speak or hear concluded that he is innocent and decided to set him free. The officers called for a three-wheeler, asked Binish to get in and put his cycle also into the passenger compartment and ordered the three-wheeler driver to drop Binish off at his house.
On 29 February, Binish was taken to Cherthala Thaluk Hospital at about 6pm by his parents where he was admitted for treatment to his injuries. In the meanwhile Binish's story was reported in local media. There was an immediate public outcry against the police officers involved in the incident. The Kerala State Human Rights Commission has also taken the case into notice and issued orders for the state police to investigate the case. Meanwhile the local police has issued a statement that Binish was not tortured, but was suffering from chronic asthma. However this statement has been refuted by everyone involved in this case who is concerned about the police atrocities in the state.
BACKGROUD INFORMATION:
The police in Kerala state are notorious for its use of custodial torture. Often the police use torture as a means for extracting statements from suspects. Torture is inflicted upon persons arrested and detained in police custody in connection with the crime and also against innocent persons whom the police question in connection with their other regular duties.
Use of unwarranted force by local police is so common that it is now a practice by the local police to slap persons whom they talk to. It is a common scene in Kerala for police officers to slap a person as they approach a stranger before even uttering a word. This practice has gained approval of senior police officers as a 'shortcut' to psychologically overpower the person to whom the officer is speaking to.
It is also a common practice for police officers across the state to take into custody persons whom they suspect of being found at places 'where they cannot explain the reason for their presence'. As strange and loosely worded this expression is, so is the reason for the local police to prohibit persons from spending time outside their house, particularly during evening hours, at open play grounds and village grounds in rural areas of the state.
The common practice is for the local police to roam around in police vehicles in the villages and order persons, especially the youth, to go home, if they are found hanging around in public places. To prevent the people from returning, the police would approach anyone who is found in public places, ask the person why he is hanging around in the locality while slapping him hard on his face and pushing the person off holding him by his neck and ordering him to return home. This is widely practiced in Kerala that parents now advice their children not to go out of the house in the evening. Such practices are mostly focused against young males in the guise of preventing and controlling theft in rural villages.
No law in India or in the state allows police to impose such restrictions. It is true that theft is common in India and Kerala is not an exception. In the recent years incidents of theft have in fact increased. Though this is a reflection of the state of policing in any given area, measures like illegal restrictions upon individual freedom in the name of law and order has not reduced theft, but has in fact further isolated the people from their police. Most probably Binish was also taken into custody by the police on the suspicion that he was scouting around for a place to break in.
According to Section 331 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, anyone who causes grievous hurt for the purpose of extorting from the sufferer, or any person interested in the sufferer, any confession or any information which may lead to the detection of an offense or misconduct can be punished for imprisonment for a period not more than 10 years and also fine. A corresponding provision of the Code relevant to this Section is Section 348 of the Code which deals with wrongful confinement. According to this Section, anyone who wrongfully confines any person for the purpose of extorting from the person confined or any person interested in the person confined any confession or any information must be punished for a period that may extend to three years and also be liable for fine. These two provisions of the Code are incorporated in the penal law in India to prevent custodial torture; though the definition of torture as it is conceived in India is far below the universal standards. Pain, as defined in the UN Convention against Torture, includes mental and physical pain. This concept has attained universal recognition and a norm of customary international law. The police officers who tortured Binish are liable to be charged for crimes under these two Sections of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.
The fact that Binish was brutally tortured shows both the inexperience and the lack of professionalism of the state police and also the widespread acceptance within the force for the use of torture as a means for investigation and to maintain law and order. Further, the use of such force is also a reflection upon the impunity the local police enjoy in the name of law enforcement.
The United Nations Guidelines for the Prevention of Crime -- vide Economic and Social Council resolution 2002/13, calls for the member states to address crime prevention through a humane and cost-effective method; involving government leadership; considering the socio-economic developments; and with the cooperation and partnership of other civil society players. This obviously involves developing a trust of the local populace as one of the essential elements for effective crime control. However the state police in Kerala have not considered a public trust building exercise as an essential ingredient for crime prevention. Instead the Kerala State Police, like any other police force in India continue to use centuries old practices of imparting fear upon the society as a means to prevent crime, of which Binish's case is a tragic example.
Soon after the police officers involved in Binish's case was placed on suspension pending investigation in this case, it is reported that the officers have now started pressurising Binish's family to withdraw the complaint they have filed at the police station. It is also reported that some senior police officers are also helping the accused officers in this process. In the absence of an independent mechanism in India to investigate complaints against the police the possibilities are that in this case the police will try to cover-up the guilt of the accused police officers, by fabricating evidence or avoiding crucial evidence concerning the incident during the investigation in this case.
The AHRC in the past had experienced such corrupt practices followed by the local police, not only from Kerala, but from other states in India. In the past, when the AHRC wrote to the Kerala State Government calling for immediate attention concerning cases of police torture, the government has only cared to acknowledge the receipt of such complaints and has thus far failed to inform the AHRC or for that matter even the victims in those cases what had happened to the complaints filed by the AHRC with the government. Assuming from the lack of any further action from the state government, the AHRC has to conclude that the state government has taken no action against any police officers, or even cared to investigate the cases brought to the government's notice.
The AHRC is also informed that during the past few months the state government has asked the local police to monitor human rights groups who are communicating cases of human rights abuses, particularly concerning custodial violence to international organisations like the UN, with an intention to intimidate these organisations and groups and to force them to keep silent.
The Government of Kerala has recently launched a state-wide programme to promote and rebuild police-citizen relationship in the state. The programme titled 'Janakiya Police' (people's police) was launched on 26 March 2008. However, to gain any respect and confidence of the people, the state government must first control the abuse of authority by the police and fasten accountability in the police force. Without attempting to this no other efforts will generate public confidence upon the local police, not only in Kerala, but in the entire country.
29/02/2008- Bineesh, S/o Gopalakrishnan, Padanilath Chiraveedu, P.O.Punnayuurkulam, Thrissur
24/01/2008- Sajaadh, S/o Abubakkar, Chalapurathu House, Kadikkad, P.O.Punnayurkulam, Thrissur
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