KOCHI: Had he shown some mercy to my kid, she would not have taken the extreme step,” says Dilshad K Salim, father of law student Mofiya Parveen, who died by suicide on November 22, after police failed to act on her complaint against her husband and in-laws. Apart from ignoring her complaints, Aluva East Station House Officer C L Sudheer allegedly insulted her and her father in front of the offenders.
Mofiya, a third-year LLB student at a college in Thodupuzha, was very brave and independent woman, who funded her studies from the income she earned as a freelance mehndi artist, said Dilshad. She met Suhail through social media and later married him. When the marriage fell apart, she did not want to keep silent and, instead, questioned the injustice meted out to her.
“She was a law student and had self-respect. That is why she approached all possible authorities including the National Women’s Commission and the chief minister’s office. Adding to the physical and emotional violence and financial exploitation she faced at the house of her in-laws, Mofiya was shocked by the attitude of the police officer,” says Dilshad.
Insult, humiliation
The insult and humiliation faced by Mofiya at the police station was not a lone incident. Many women and their relatives across the state have come forward raising the inhuman attitude of the police officials when they complain against their husbands and in-laws. When complaints connected to abuse by partners are received, police are too slow to react, they said. For Kozhikode native Shyamili, the police had been inactive for years after repeated complaints against her husband Nidheesh and his mother. Only after a video of him brutally hitting her in public went viral on social media on Friday, they took action against him. The couple got married in 2009 and from the next year onward, she had been knocking on the doors of the police station in vain.
“When I complained about my alcoholic and abusive husband, they called him to the station, mediated talks and let him go scot free. At times, I felt that they were afraid to deal with him. Domestic abuse cases are being dealt with very casually by the police. Once they told me that he was uncontrollable and even hit another man with a beer bottle in front of them. Does that mean the wives should continue to suffer?” she asked.
Conflict resolution centres must hold mediation talks: IG
“In Kerala Police Act, there is a provision for petition resolution. Here, mediation is a way to bring peace between the parties in issues like border disputes, where lack of communication is the main villain. Since civil cases take 15 to 20 years to complete legal proceedings, people prefer to settle them through compromise talks. However, this should not be the treatment towards a domestic abuse victim, where a woman is brutally attacked. Such cases should not be mediated in a police station,” said P Vijayan, IG in charge of Protection of Civil Rights.
The officer said the mediation cells under the social justice department are the best for holding talks between the parties. However, the problem is that one party might not show up. When the police call them, both parties respect the invitation.“Mediation talks at police stations should not be aiming settlement, but they must provide a space for conciliation. Now, we also have district conflict resolution centres to hold mediation talks,” he said.
Special training needed, says doctor
Though awareness classes and sessions are provided to police personnel to sensitise them on dealing with domestic issues and violence by partners, the complaints about cops misbehaving with complainants, especially women, continue. This calls for separate trained personnel in every police station, says psychiatrist
Dr C J John. “There are many good police officers handling the situations amicably. However, to bring in discipline, there should be some mandatory training. In every station, there should be at least two or three cops who are trained in giving counselling and mediating between the two parties. They need not be SHOs. Such initiatives will enhance the quality of social policing. There should be a structure and protocol for the mediation talks in the stations,” he said.
Delaying autopsy report
In a similar incident, a parent approached authorities complaining about the police’s inhumane attitude towards the death of his daughter. Abdulla, hailing from Wayanad, received the preliminary postmortem report of his daughter Farsana 11 months after her death. Though, initially, the police doubted it to be a murder, Abdulla alleges that they were influenced by her husband Abdu Samad and changed the murder charge to suicide.
Since the death took place in Gudalur, he is preparing to challenge the charges in Tamil Nadu courts. Top police officials say that police try to settle the issues amicably, especially issues that derive from the lack of communication between the two parties. However, some officers, who lack this quality to listen impartially and suggest measures to settle the issue, are the ones who bring a bad name to the entire force.