Kottayam: As many as 16 persons, including three transgenders, who staged a protest seeking justice for Jisha - the dalit rape-murder victim, were arrested and allegedly manhandled by the police in Perumbavoor on Sunday.
Activists, who came together by a Facebook collective, staged the protest seeking action against the Kuruppampady CI, who allegedly showed apathy towards the probe into the brutal rape-murder of the 30-year-old woman who was killed 10 days ago.
The protesters alleged that they were manhandled and the transgenders with them were harassed by the police. They said they would file a complaint with the Perumbavoor SI against the police brutality.
The protesters were arrested from the compound of a police camp near the SP office in Perumbavoor and manhandled on the way to the police station in the evening.
The activists had blocked MC Road by 11.30 am. They moved to the SP office but were denied access to the top cop.
"We were staging the protest since morning. We sat in front of the SP office, demanding that he meet us. However, the DySP told us that it was not the SP's duty to talk to us," Hasna Shahitha, who was among the protesters told Onmanorama over phone.
"While one of us told the DySP that we were staging the protest for the women in their family too, he told us that they knew how to protect the women in their homes," Hasna said in a Facebook post, asking who would such police deliver justice to.
"Sensing no chance of meeting with the SP, 15 of us entered the police camp functioning near the SP office. However, the police then locked the gate of the camp, leaving others outside," she said.
"We sat inside the camp premises till 6.30 pm and then we were arrested and removed from there. Inside the police van, the women cops beat us with lathis, pushed us down to seats and twisted our hands. They even tore our clothes and harassed the transgenders, calling them men in disguise of women," she said.
The arrested were later released on bail and sought medical aid from the Perumbavoor General Hospital.
Meanwhile, the police lathicharged the activists who protested the arrest.
"Two men and women suffered injuries in the lathicharge and are hospitalised," Hasna added.
She said the protesters dispersed only after the Ernakulam range IG Mahipal Yadav promised action against the CI.
However, the IG denied giving such promises. He told Onmanorama over the phone that the protesters were arrested as they disrupted the police from discharging their duties.
"They were only formally arrested and soon released on bail. I have not made any promise on action against the CI," he said.