A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court directed the State Police Chief to look into a complaint of torture of a person by police for not wearing a mask and inform the court about the veracity of the allegation.
The Bench comprising Justice Devan Ramachandran and Justice Dr. Kauser Edappagath issued the directive on a petition filed by T.K. Vaishak of Koyilandi, seeking disciplinary action against police officers of the Munambam police station.
When the petition came up for hearing, the Bench orally observed that the police had a great role to play during this pandemic. But they had to be “empathetic”. The second wave of COVID-19 was on and a section of the people were violating the protocol. The police should act only as per the law.
The petitioner alleged that he was showered with invectives and subjected to torture for not wearing a mask. According to him, on April 16, when he was walking back to his workplace at Cherai beach after lunch, he took off his mask for a while to answer a call on his mobile phone. The police, who then came there, scolded him and abused him. He then apologised to the police and expressed his willingness to pay the required fine. Despite this, the police officials went on abusing him.
When he asked them to stop using abusive words the police officials physically attacked him and took him to the police station in their official vehicle.
He had no intention to violate any rule, he said.
