When a man accused of stealing hundreds of mobile phones escaped from Maradu police station here recently, a police officer tried to hide behind an unusual excuse for the wanted man’s escape.
“He escaped because of all these human rights laws,” said the officer.
The officer then went on to explain what exactly he thought of laws brought in to ensure prisoners’ rights to dignity.
“Earlier, we didn’t allow male prisoners to wear anything more than their undergarments when they were in the station. Now we have to give them full clothing because of human rights laws.”
If the prisoner didn’t have clothes on, he would have had a tougher time finding an escape, the policeman offered by way of explanation.
The officer seemed to make nothing of the fact that the new police station had no cell to hold prisoners.
Or the possibility that the accused had not been handcuffed properly after he was released to use the toilet.
The accused, meanwhile, is yet to be traced.
Hunt for loan sharks
After a series of raids and arrests at illegal money-lending establishments, the police are now organising adalats to carry forward the drive against loan sharks. The Ernakulam Rural police are holding an adalat on Wednesday at the Aluva DCRB office, and the city police on Thursday at the Commissioner’s office, to hear complaints from the public on lenders charging exorbitant interest rates.
The police hope that people’s complaints will help them take further action against loan sharks. They have also invited complaints against multi-level marketing operations and money chains.
Wait for station continues
When Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala announced recently that a new cyber police station would come up in the city, police officers here regarded the news with cautious optimism. The reason was that a cyber crime centre for Kochi had been announced over two years ago. The government had set aside a sum of Rs.2 crore to set up the centre.
There were suggestions that a station could be set up at Infopark with modern facilities. Officials at one point even said that space had been identified for the station and it would be set up soon. When the Minister announced a cyber police station two years after the original budget allocation, officers hope the station will materialise soon.
