Those who dishonour the uniform

We have a police force that largely upholds justice and the law within its limits. The overall service of the police should not be judged based on a few isolated lapses. However, just like any system, the police force also has its flaws. Some officers turn into uniformed offenders when their inflated egos are hurt, and they misuse their power by falsely implicating innocent people and sending them to jail. They treat their authority to enforce the law as a personal licence to arrest anyone, merely to send "a message" to society that this is what happens if you challenge the police.

Before human rights, civil rights, and the Constitution came into force in the country, one of the main duties of the police was to file false cases and imprison ordinary people to please foreign rulers. The traces of this colonial mindset still remain within the police system. This was clearly seen in the case where an expatriate, who had returned home for his daughter’s wedding, was falsely implicated and kept in jail for 54 days. VK Thajudeen, a native of Kathiroor in Thalassery, was framed in a chain-snatching case for refusing to help push a police jeep that was stuck in mud. Police officers reportedly stripped him in front of his family during evidence collection and paraded him before locals to humiliate him. Those officers, drunk on power, may have found amusement in his suffering.

However, the verdict issued by the High Court the other day is strong enough to cause lasting distress to the officers- Sub-Inspector P Biju and Assistant Sub-Inspectors Yogesh and T Unnikrishnan of the Chakkarakkal police station in Kannur- who were responsible for falsely implicating Thajudeen. The court described its order as a warning to prevent such behaviour by the police in the future. The court directed the government to pay Rs 10 lakh as compensation to Thajudeen and Rs 1 lakh each to his wife and three children. The government can later recover this amount from the concerned officers. This means the three officers will have to jointly pay a total of Rs 14 lakh.

Such unfit officers in uniform should not be allowed to continue in service even for a single day. If they are allowed to remain, they may recover this compensation by taking bribes from the public. The incident occurred on July 11, 2018, when police sought Thajudeen's help to push their jeep while he was returning with his family from his sister’s house early in the morning. While others helped, Thajudeen stayed in the car due to back pain. He was later branded a “thief” and jailed. He was released only after it was found that the real accused was someone else. The High Court’s order for heavy compensation serves as a strong warning to all police officers who follow the practice of arresting innocent people when they fail to catch the real culprits.