Kasaragod: Kasaragod police have once again landed in controversy after embellishing the First Information Report (FIR) in the Kumbla toll plaza incident, where officers were seen on video forcibly dragging a young man out of his car.

In the FIR, Kumbla Station House Officer Inspector Mukundan T K stated that Muhammed Riyas (30) was found “suspiciously standing” near the toll plaza and was arrested after he allegedly tried to flee on seeing the officer and his patrol team.

The SHO took this creative liberty despite the toll plaza being under CCTV surveillance and citizens filming the incident on their phones, with the videos later going viral on social media.

This is the second such incident involving the Kasaragod police and FIR in recent months. In December 2025, Vidyanagar Sub-Inspector Anoop S was caught on camera allegedly fabricating a juvenile driving case. The underage student and his adult sister later produced CCTV footage to show that the FIR narrative was false.

Later, District Police Chief B V Vijaya Bharath Reddy quashed the juvenile driving FIR and transferred the officer to the Cybercrime Police Station, a move widely seen as damage control by the department.

In the Kumbla case, however, the State Police Chief Ravada A Chandrasekhar directed Reddy to conduct an inquiry through an officer not below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police.

The inquiry was ordered after social activist and high court advocate Kulathur Jaisingh wrote to the Chief Minister about the discrepancy in the FIR. “There is clear visual evidence showing that Riyas was dragged out of a car, not running away from police or standing suspiciously. The police could have written what actually happened at the toll plaza and still booked him, if they believed there was a need for preventive arrest,” he said.

Adv Jaisingh said he chose to intervene because digital evidence was available in this case. “There will be many instances where police get away with such actions because there is no video or CCTV footage,” he said.

He said that Kasaragod ASP Nandagopan M, entrusted with the inquiry, spoke with him and said that he would wrap up the inquiry within 15 days. The State Police Chief has directed that the complainant should get a copy of the inquiry report.

What happened at the toll plaza
Around 6 pm on January 28, Muhammed Riyas was returning in a car with his aunt, two cousins and a six-month-old infant after visiting a dargah in Ullal near Mangaluru. At the Kumbla toll plaza, his car was behind a KSRTC bus. As the bus crossed the boom barrier, Riyas drove forward, and the boom barrier came down and struck his windscreen. Riyas said the barrier fell after the toll amount had already been deducted through FASTag. After reviewing the CCTV footage, the District Police Chief said the barrier hit the vehicle because Riyas did not stop at the designated stop slot.

When Riyas questioned a toll plaza official about the “defective” boom barrier, communication broke down as the official did not understand Malayalam. The exchange delayed the vehicle at the toll lane. A police officer soon approached Riyas and asked him to move the car aside to avoid a traffic block. Riyas, however, did not comply. After around four minutes of congestion, Inspector Mukundan T K walked up to the car and again asked him to clear the lane. Riyas alleged Mukundan was rude. In one of the videos shot by a passerby, the officer can be heard saying: “Is he a king!”

Advocate Kulathur Jaisingh said police guidelines require officers to act with restraint and courtesy, especially when families, women and children are present. “With a little tact, the situation could have been defused. Instead, the officer ordered his team to drag the driver out of the car,” he said.

Riyas alleged that when his aunt tried to intervene, police officers pulled her arm as well. She had recently undergone surgery for trigger finger, and the force reportedly caused swelling in her hand. She later accompanied Riyas to the police station.

When Onmanorama contacted Inspector Mukundan after the incident, he was unaware of the details of the toll plaza altercation and only knew that Riyas was causing a traffic obstruction. He maintained that Riyas was not booked for any offence and that it was only a preventive arrest under Section 170 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). Police officers later pushed the car to the side of the toll lane, leaving Riyas’s two cousins and the six-month-old infant inside until Riyas and his aunt returned around 7 pm.

However, the FIR presents a different version. It states that Riyas tried to flee on seeing the police and was arrested after he was unable to give a clear answer for his behaviour. “Therefore, in good faith, it is believed that he was staying at the place with the intention of committing some crime,” the FIR reads, justifying the arrest.

After the incident, social media was rife with claims that Riyas was dragged out for refusing to pay the toll. To counter the misinformation, the District Police Chief released detailed CCTV footage of the incident. Yet, when registering the FIR, police themselves recorded a version that contradicted both the video evidence and eyewitness accounts.