KALPETTA: After 23 years of legal battle, K K Surendran has secured Rs 12.5 lakh compensation for illegal arrest and custodial torture during the Muthanga agitation.
A phone number written in green ink in a diary changed the course of Surendran’s life. A teacher who had gone to conduct classes for underprivileged tribal children was branded a terrorist, accused of providing weapons training to Adivasis involved in the Muthanga agitation, and subjected to brutal police torture. It took 23 years of legal battle for him to secure justice.
Surendran, then a gazetted-rank teacher at the Wayanad District Institute of Education and Training (DIET), was arrested in connection with the 2003 Muthanga agitation. He spent 32 days in jail, where police brutality left him with a ruptured eardrum and permanent hearing loss in one ear. Now, the government has issued an order granting him Rs 12.5 lakh in compensation, with the amount to be recovered from the police officers involved.
For Surendran, the order brings relief, though he says no amount of money can compensate for the suffering he endured.
“I finally received justice, and I am grateful to Chief Minister V D Satheesan for keeping his promise. I endured immense torture while in custody. The police branded me a terrorist just because I had gone to conduct classes for underprivileged tribal children. They alleged I had gone there to provide weapons training to tribals participating in the Muthanga agitation. I am grateful to the government for taking this step, even after all these years,” he told TNIE.
The police came looking for him because his phone number appeared in the diary of M Geethanandan, one of the leaders associated with the movement who had surrendered. “Geethanandan had asked me to help conduct classes for tribal students studying in Class X. He was noting down my office number and did not have a pen, so I gave him the green-ink pen I used for office purposes. I never imagined that this small incident would change the course of my life,” he said.
The consequences of his arrest were devastating. The assault in custody ruptured his eardrum, leaving him with hearing loss that continues to affect him. Beyond the physical injuries, he had to fight the allegations that had cast him as a participant in a violent struggle, even though he consistently denied those claims.
Surendran filed criminal and civil cases in 2003, challenging the case against him and seeking justice for the treatment he had suffered. While the criminal proceedings were quashed, the fight for compensation continued. A court ordered compensation in the civil case in 2021, but the then government and two police officers filed appeals, delaying the outcome.
The wait stretched on until Surendran travelled to Thiruvananthapuram last month to personally apprise Satheesan of his ordeal. After the meeting, the government decided not to challenge the Kalpetta court’s verdict.
