THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The charges of police high-handedness are nothing but ‘coloured lies’ and levying penalties on the public is not a major crime, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told the assembly on Tuesday even as he lauded the selfless service rendered by the police force during these trying times.
However, barely hours after the chief minister’s ringing endorsement of the state police, a sub-inspector of Kazhakoottam police was suspended for attacking a 40-year-old man for allegedly breaching the Covid protocol. This literally blew away the defence the CM put up for the police, who have been fending off accusations of high-handedness and orchestrating penalty overdrive.
Principal SI Vimal S was suspended for brutally caning Shibu Kumar U V, a car showroom employee, at Kariyil Ramachandran Nagar on Sunday. Shibu was standing near the entrance to his residential colony when he was targeted. Shibu suffered injuries on his back and arm and had to receive medical treatment to alleviate the pain. But what affected Shibu the most was the mental trauma resulting from the incident.
“The attack came out of the blue. The cops came in a car and went berserk. One of the officers caned me, while the others showered abuse. The trauma it inflicted will haunt me,” he said.
Shibu said that he was a member of the Residents’ Association and the cops tried to tarnish his image saying that he was engaged in anti-social activities. “I don’t drink and I am not an anti-social. But they tried to portray me like that to cover up their mistake,” he added.
V Kunjumon, who was fined by Mannanthala police on Sunday, as he went out to get cooked rice for performing obsequies for his deceased parents on ‘Karkkidaka Vavu’, wondered whether he is actually living in a democratic society.Since he was alone at home, Kunjumon had gone out to buy the cooked rice when he was slapped with a Rs 2,000- fine. Later, when he showed the food packet to the policemen, they reduced the fine to Rs 500.
“I felt bad on seeing the manner in which the police treated the public. A woman, who was going to attend a funeral, was also blocked by the cops. She was in tears, but they did not listen to her ,” he said. Kunjumon strictly adheres to Covid protocol, uses a double mask and goes out only for work. But even that sanity did not kept him safe from the cops.
CASES RAINING CATS AND DOGS
From May 8 to August 4, Kerala Police registered around 17.75 lakh cases under various provisions of the Kerala Epidemic Diseases Act
Total fine mobilised will be in the range of C125 crore to C150 crore
T’Puram Rural, Kollam City and Kollam Rural top list in the number of cases registered
Total cases registered and their nature under Epidemic Diseases Act
May
No masks: 2,60,511
Jumping quarantine: 1,333
Vehicles seized: 40,195
Arrests: 33,664
Crowding, not following social distancing etc: 80,964
June
No masks: 3,00,785
Jumping quarantine: 1,000
Vehicles seized: 80,926
Arrests: 46,691
Crowding, not following social distancing etc: 1,38,220
July
No masks: 4,34,650
Jumping quarantine: 2,959
Vehicles seized: 96,409
Arrests: 46,560
Crowding, not following social distancing etc: 2,20,227
August (till 4)
No masks: 77,903
Jumping quarantine: 628
Vehicles seized: 17,523
Arrests: 5,871
Crowding, not following social distancing etc-30,741