CHENNAI : Representatives of Disability Rights Alliance (DRA) of Tamil Nadu have claimed they were mistreated by the police when they tried to meet the Election Commission of India (ECI) officials at a private hotel in Meenambakkam.
Activist Professor Raghuraman claimed they were forcibly shifted from the hotel by the policemen. “Disability rights activists Smitha Sadasivan, a wheelchair-bound person, was forcibly lifted from her wheelchair and moved to the police station. Even after showing our credentials, the police treated us like culprits,” he said.
Smitha alleged the police grabbed her phone and refused to allow her to speak to the ECI officials who were on line, “The police officials did not even listen to us. They lifted me (from my wheelchair) and put me in a police jeep and we were taken to the police station against our will,” she said.
Smitha and Raghuraman from DRA had earlier sought permission to meet the ECI officials, who were on an official visit to the state. Both of them said they had previously worked alongside the ECI in the capacity of members of the state advisory board on disability for making the election process PwD-friendly. The representatives arrived at the venue in the morning to submit a memorandum to the ECI officials to ensure accessible polling booths for the Lok Sabha elections.
Sources said the members of the alliance met with the ECI officials in the afternoon and submitted their memorandum after intervention from the officials. Activist Vaishnavi Jayakumar from the DRA said mistreating a person with disabilities is a human rights violation “We will file a complaint with the higher officials and the state human rights commission. We have asked for CCTV footage from the hotel, but they refused to provide it.”
However, police sources said the incident took place due to a miscommunication. “A miscommunication caused the whole confusion. Extra security was deployed at the hotel as there were demonstrations by people with disabilities for the past few days in Chennai. We have expressed our regrets to them,” a senior police official added.
(With inputs from Gautham @ Chennai)