Kerala Police's most recent social media attempt to induce laughter and infuse civic sense by projecting its 'Janamaithri' image has put itself on the dock for inappropriate treatment of a group of youngsters.
The Kerala Police social media team on Wednesday evening posted a 34-second edited video with a teaser line "You'll be shocked to see."
The video shows a group of youngsters inside the Perinthalmanna Police Station in Malappuram district. The policemen are seen encouraging the youth to prepare tea for themselves.
It is the script superimposed on the video that explained the story.
"Here's what happened to the youth who travelled 22km at midnight to have tea," the script proclaimed mockingly.
The police team found the incident funny, as is evident from a reply to one of the comments: "...they returned after enjoying the tea with the police."
Apparently, with negative reactions pouring in, the police team edited the Facebook post with a heading: Friendly Tea. "Saw the youngsters while patrolling. They were out to have tea. As it was past 1 am all shops were shut. The youth were invited to the station and served tea and plesantries before the Perinthalmanna Police bid them goodbye," the police team reacted.
But that was certainly not the case from the perspective of the majority of viewers who commented on the post.
"This video is an infringement on their privacy," commented Adv Abdul Rasheed, a Facebook user, whose profile suggests he is also the state vice-president of KSU.
It doesn't seem that much fun. What prevents anyone from travelling 22km or any distance for tea? asked writer Akhil P Dharmajan.
A user with profile name Sujith Kumar commented: "Actually, what is your problem? Your department requires counselling."
Another Facebook user claimed that he is a victim of similar police harassment.
Habeeb Rahman M wrote: "Respected Kerala Police, in July 2015, me and a friend were kept in the lockup for a night because we travelled 65km for tea. For you, accusing us of ganja, women (sic), theft was a night's incident, for me it cost my self-esteem. I won't forget the Kumaly Police for that night."
Harif Vailathur joked: "Good thing the boys didn't ask for Kuzhimandi (Biriyani) instead of tea."
Manu Karuvattu, whose bio indicates that he lives in Dublin, Ireland, wrote: "Wife told me to go for a night drive and we ended up in a county 240 km away. Good that we are in Ireland, had we been in Kerala I would have been driving for the police."
In just over an hour, the video was shared over 350 times and had nearly 2,000 comments on Facebook alone.
Incidentally, most of the users who interacted with the Kerala Police's tea-time joke simply could not digest it. So for now, your friendly neighbourhood Janamaitri police is facing flak.
