KOLLAM: Siyad’s mother was inconsolable on Tuesday. “What will I do without my child,” she asked as grieving relatives and neighbours tried, and failed, to console her at the small house hidden at the end of a narrow pathway in Kundara. A short distance away, in a small rented house, Siyad’s wife, children and mother-in-law were yet to come to terms with a life without him.
Siyad, 38, the alleged victim of custodial torture, was the sole breadwinner of the two families. With him gone, they all now face an uncertain future.
For Siyad’s parents, the pain is compounded by the fact that they lost two children in their infancy.
The families are also under severe financial distress. Siyad’s father, who drove an autorickshaw, has been unable to work due to severe asthma, while his mother has been undergoing treatment for health issues. To make matters worse, their only house is facing foreclosure owing to unpaid loans.
Meanwhile, standing amid grieving relatives, Siyad’s elder daughter fought back tears as she spoke about her father.
“I was never this bold. But today I want to speak up as I don’t want any other family to go through what we are going through. No other child should have to experience this,” said the girl, who is undergoing treatment for a heart ailment at Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology in Thiruvana-nthapuram.
She also claimed that the police officer she identified as Athul had not been in uniform when Siyad was taken into custody on June 16.
As police officers recorded the statements from relatives and neighbours outside, many of them described Siyad as a quiet man who kept to himself.
“He never picked fights with anyone. He would go to work and come straight back home,” said a relative. Questioning Siyad’s detention, another relative asked, “How could the police rush to detain and drag away a person based solely on a complaint lodged by a 16-year-old?”
Several residents alleged that some of the police personnel involved had a history of behaving harshly with people.