Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 3: A Kerala Police official has been accused of thrashing a passenger inside a sleeper compartment of the Maveli Express.
The incident happened on Sunday night and visuals of the officer slapping a passenger, kicking him and knocking him down went viral.
The officer has been identified by other passengers as Assistant Sub Inspector Pramod.
The incident happened when he asked for the ticket and while the man was searching for the ticket, Parmod slapped him. Soon the passenger fell down and Pramod was seen kicking him, who was now lying on the floor of the train. When co-passengers objected to this, the police official continued beating the passenger, who according to others did not create any nuisance to attract such a punishment. After throwing out the passenger from the cabin, Pramod tried to justify his act by saying that if this was not handled he did, the safety of the other passengers would be compromised.
Pramod said that “what he did was to send out the passenger, who did not have a ticket, to travel in the sleeper compartment”.
Reacting to the viral video of police brutality, Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan said after Pinarayi Vijayan who retained power in the 2021 April elections, even though he is the Home Minister, the police force is now controlled by the CPI-M.
“We all see how a woman police officer misbehaved with an 8-year-old girl. The police have no right to take on the people. If there is a violation of law, action can be taken, but not in the manner of kicking out a passenger who boarded a reservation compartment. The bearings of the police appear to have gone out of order,” said Satheesan, who added that whenever incidents like these happen, the stock statements of Minister’s and CPI-M leaders is that this was just a one off instance.
Incidentally, the police brutality by Pramod comes two days after a Swedish national, who runs a home stay at the famed tourist destination, Kovalam had a harrowing time when on New Year eve, a group of police officials while checking found out that he had no bill of the liquor he had purchased.
After the video went viral, top police officials in the Kannur district and Railway Protection force officials are looking into the entire sequence of events. (IANS)