The State Police Complaints Authority (SPCA) has given a week’s time to the police officer who is suspected to have extorted fish from a roadside vendor on the Alappuzha-Changanassery road in November to appear before it.
The officer of the rank of DySP from Changanassery was to appear before SPCA during its sitting on Friday. Instead, a Sub-Inspector from a nearby police station turned up with a request from the senior officer, saying that he had been held up in a Sessions Court trial.
“We decided to give the delinquent officer a week’s time as a last chance. We have sent notice, asking him to appear before the authority during its next sitting on Friday. A copy of the notice has also been mailed to the Superintendent of Police, Kottayam, to be served on the officer concerned,” SPCA Chairman Justice K. Narayana Kurup said.
Haneef, a fish vendor, had petitioned the SPCA, saying that an officer of the rank of Sub-Inspector, who he identified as Prem Kumar of the Changanassery police station, had chosen the biggest fish from his basket and refused to pay for it.
Initial inquiries by the SPCA with the Changanassery police got the response that there was no officer by that name. Suspecting an attempt by the police to stall the inquiry, the SPCA pulled up the Inspector General of Police, Ernakulam Range, for not producing the officer concerned.
Before last Friday’s sitting, Justice Kurup was told by a senior police officer that an officer of the rank of DySP was the suspected person, and that he would appear before the SPCA. But he did not turn up.
On another petition on the alleged police torture of Bindhyas Thomas, a key accused in the sensational blackmailing case in Kochi, the SPCA accepted the plea of the petitioner’s counsel, seeking a month to file the paper-book (a book or paper containing an abstract of all the facts and pleadings necessary to the full understanding of a case)
Bindhyas had accused the police of sexual and physical harassment while in custody in 2014 during an investigation into the case.
According to her, she was sexually harassed by a police officer in the presence of two women officers.
“We decided to give the delinquent officer a week’s time as a last chance. We have sent notice, asking him to appear before the authority during its next sitting on Friday.”
Justice K. Narayana Kurup,
SPCA Chairman
DySP rank officer fails to turn up before SPCA; says he was held up in trial
