
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: An assistant sub-inspector attached to the Peroorkada station has been suspended for mentally harassing a Dalit woman who was wrongly taken into custody in connection with a theft complaint which was later proven to be false.
ASI Prasannan was suspended after it was found that he had mistreated the woman, Bindu R, during her nearly 20-hour detention.
The police had earlier suspended Sub-inspector S G Prasad on the basis of an adverse report filed by the Special Branch Assistant Commissioner, who had probed the incident on the instruction of the City Commissioner.
Bindu had alleged that Prasannan, who was also the GD charge, had harassed the woman the most. He used swear words at her and told her to drink water from the toilet when she had asked for drinking water.
Bindu R, who hails from Panavoor near Nedumangad, was working as a housemaid at Ambalamukku when she was detained by the cops on the complaint of the house owner. The house owner's complaint was that 18 grams of gold ornaments had gone missing from the house.
The police detained the 39-year-old and kept at the station for about 20 hours where she was even denied drinking water. Her ordeal ended when the complainant found the gold, which was misplaced in her house, and conveyed it to the police.
The police, meanwhile, withdrew the FIR against the woman, but the incident snowballed into a major controversy after the victim complained with the Police Complaints Authority, SC/ST Commission and the CM's Office.
The Special Branch report said lapses from the police side were evident. It said the woman was kept in custody at odd hours without prior authorisation, and the entire episode contravened existing legal conventions.