Custodial assaulters must be dismissed without fail

Complaints of police brutality are surfacing one after another. Complaints about police brutality have been pouring in from various parts of the state after the police officers who brutally beat up Congress worker VS Sujith were suspended. The investigation report against Madhu Babu, who was then the Konni CI in the case of beating up an SFI leader, has now been released. The report, which states that the officer regularly commits custodial torture, also recommended that he not be given the charge of law and order. None of this has stopped the Home Department from promoting this officer and giving him the charge of law and order. The Special Branch had also submitted a report that this officer should be removed from the charge of law and order. The promotion was granted after the officer approached the Administrative Tribunal and obtained a favourable order.

The incident of assaulting former SFI Pathanamthitta district president Jayakrishnan Thannithode took place in 2012. In 2016, the DGP received a report recommending action against that police officer. Even after 2025, no action has been taken. Such measures to protect the guilty are what are leading to the repetition of custodial thrashings. A section of the police regularly uses third-degree as an easy way to collect bribes. The incident of beating the hotel owner, his son and employees at the Peechi police station is the biggest example of this. The hotel owner also says in the complaint that, in addition to the beating, the police took a bribe of Rs. 5 lakh by threatening to implicate him in serious cases.

Not only politicians, but also individuals with no politics, bank officials and revenue officials are now being subjected to brutal assaults. What needs to be stopped is the action of the Home Department, which protects police officers even if the investigation report finds them guilty of the complaints. Often, even the transfer of police officers in such complaints is closer to their homes. The Supreme Court ordered the installation of CCTV cameras in all police stations based on the conviction that police stations are places where the greatest human rights violations take place. The law also stipulates that the camera footage should be made available to the complainant under the Right to Information Act. Despite all this, a small minority of police officers are not ready to change.

Such police officers who are not ready to change with the times should be punished not with suspension but with dismissal. This will not reduce the strength of the police. On the contrary, it will only lead to further improvement in the performance of the police force. Although there is a Police Complaints Authority, the authority can only make recommendations on complaints. It is the government that should take action. That is why the number of complaints before the authority has not increased. Times have changed. The authorities should also be ready to change the police accordingly. The people should be convinced that the strength of the khaki is not in its brute force, but in its intelligence and willingness to serve. Therefore, very strong punitive measures should be taken against the police officers who are found guilty.