THIRUVANANTHAPURAM – Congress MP Shashi Tharoor spoke out on Friday against the alleged police brutality against Youth Congress leader V.S. Sujith at the Kunnamkulam police station in Thrissur. The event that happened in April 2023 has gotten a lot of attention and criticism because CCTV footage of the savage attack came out this week.
Tharoor said on the social media site X that the incident was “deeply disturbing” and that attacking a civilian for questioning police threats is not only “unlawful” but also “inhuman.” He told Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who is also in charge of the home department, to take action right away. “Such officers, who violate the very principles of justice and dignity, have no place in the police force,” Tharoor said, adding that they had “forfeited the moral right to continue in service.”
https://twitter.com/ShashiTharoor/status/1963534615026831706
Sujith got the CCTV footage following a long legal battle under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. It shows him being slapped and struck over and over again inside the police station. Reports say that the event happened when Sujith asked police officers who were allegedly being rude to his pals. Sujith was arrested for interfering with police work while drunk, but a later medical test showed that he had not been drinking.
Since the video was made public, the Congress party has stepped up its calls for action. V.D. Satheesan, the leader of the opposition, wrote to the Chief Minister asking him to fire the cops implicated. Satheesan said that high-ranking officials tried to protect the accused by leaving out important names from the charge sheet and hiding reports.
Sujith has also said that the police officials who are being accused offered him ₹20 lakh as “compensation” to settle the matter, but he turned it down. He said that it took a protracted legal battle to get the CCTV evidence and that even though an internal police investigation confirmed the attack, the officers only faced minor disciplinary penalty.
As a protest against what happened, Youth Congress workers in Malappuram marched to the home of one of the accused, Sub-Inspector Nuhman. The protest got out of hand, and the police used lathis to break it up, hurting a number of people.