Pink Police under fire for alleged harassment of child

Child rights commission registers case

The Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KSCPCR) has registered a

suo moto case in connection with the harassment of an eight-year girl who was allegedly branded a thief by a woman police officer in Attingal on Friday.

The child had accompanied her father Jayachandran to Moonumukku, near Attingal, on his motorcycle to witness the movement of a massive cargo, containing a settling chamber for the trisonic wind tunnel being constructed at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Thumba.

Shortly after Jayachandran, a rubber tapper who hails from Thonnakkal, parked his vehicle close to a Pink Police car, they were rudely confronted by a woman police officer who was deployed to assist in traffic regulation along the National Highway. She accused the duo of stealing her mobile phone that was kept in the police car.

While Jayachandran denied having taken it, the officer purportedly accused his daughter of having flicked it.

Eyewitnesses

Eyewitnesses claim the officer and her colleague also went to the extent of frisking the man and his child who broke down amid their high-handed approach.

The officers were soon left red-faced after an onlooker dialled her phone number only to find the mobile phone lying inside the police car. An incensed crowd, some of who had recorded much of the incident on their mobile phones, condemned the attempts made by the officers to brand Jayachandran and his daughter as robbers. The police party soon left the area, turning a deaf ear towards calls to tender an apology to the father and the daughter.

KSCPCR chairman K.V. Manoj Kumar said he had received a complaint from the father. The commission had sought reports from the District Police Chief (Thiruvananthapuram Rural), the Mangalapuram station house officer, and the District Child Protection Officer (DCPO).

The DCPO had also been directed to provide counselling to the child, he added. The Thiruvananthapuram Rural police is also learnt to have initiated an enquiry to fix responsibility in the issue.