Kannur: The disappearance of a Circle Inspector of Kerala Police likely due to harassment by superiors has once again put the spotlight on the working condition of cops.
It has come to light that several cops in Kerala are disillusioned with overall work ambience and face severe stress. For instance the Armed Reserve police camp in Kannur is nothing short of a torture camp for policeman K Ratheesh who is posted there for a year. His experience sums up what his colleagues have to bear day in and out.
"I am harassed almost on a daily basis," Ratheesh says.
He laments that he is often humiliated by calling casteist slurs along with curse words. Even for minor issues, Ratheesh says, he is dealt with severely, destroying his self-respect.
Not only abuses, Ratheesh said he was often denied leave and his mandatory offs. It was also pointed out that Ratheesh had to take a three-month medical leave due to the mental torture.
Ratheesh said the harassment intensified after he refused to hand over his postal ballot during the recent Lok Sabha polls. He was frequently singled out to do the more difficult tasks, it was said.
He alleged that four officers, including a sub-inspector (SI), frequently tortured him. When he went to file a complaint the other day, reserve inspector Gangadharan allegedly warned him to withdraw the complaint. He was even threatened that if he left the police force, he would not be able to live by doing another job.
The treatment meted out to the police personnel at the AR Camp depended on their political affiliations.
Several cops, who openly oppose the police association, have to endure a similar situation, it was said.
It was only a year ago a cop named Gavaskar had alleged that an IPS officer's daughter had verbally abused him and hit him hard on his neck and shoulder with her mobile phone, following which he sustained spinal injuries.
On Thursday, V S. Navas, Circle Inspector of Police at Ernakulam Central Police Station, vanished following a heated exchange with the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) over telephone. The ACP had reportedly scolded Navas through the wireless for the failure to inform the ACP about the arrest of an accused in a job racket case. However, the ‘scolding’ through the wireless was nothing but a shower of abuses, according to the other policemen who were present. And, instead of using a private network, the ACP was using a public network that was accessible to all other police officials.
Navas was finally spotted in Tamil Nadu on Saturday morning.
