“Handcuffed and Paraded for Nearly a Kilometre”: Youth Recounts Harrowing Police Ordeal

Adoor: L S Afsal of Zubair Manzil in Parakode, Adoor, has alleged that police officers assaulted him and his mother, Shakeena, without provocation. Recounting his ordeal at a press conference, Afsal said a team of police officers arrived at his house after a local Congress leader threatened him, saying, “You and your friend will be locked up.”

“They handcuffed me and made me walk for nearly a kilometre, saying they wanted the public to see me,” Afsal said. He alleged that Arjun, a police officer from Adoor station who arrived on a motorcycle, assaulted both him and his mother without reason.

Afsal said he ran away out of fear, but the police chased him, stamped on his leg and brought him down. They then handcuffed him and made him walk. He said the police told him only after conducting a medical examination that he was not the accused and that they had mistaken him for someone else.

When they dropped him off at Nooranad, the officers allegedly offered to buy him biryani and footwear and asked him not to pursue a legal case.

Afsal was taken into custody by the Palarivattom police in Ernakulam over alleged links to an MDMA case and later subjected to brutal assault.

He was detained on the allegation that he had transferred money to the accused in the case through a bank account. Afsal said earlier that a civil police officer from Adoor station, who accompanied the Palarivattom police team, also assaulted him inside the police vehicle.

Afsal was released after being held in custody for around five hours, once the police realised that he was innocent.

He said Ernakulam police had collected his Aadhaar and other documents through the State Bank of India branch at Parakode. When he questioned the matter, the bank manager reportedly said the documents had been provided because of mistaken identity and asked him to forgive the error.

“The police caught my son and assaulted him right in front of me. When I asked them what the matter was, they assaulted me too,” Afsal’s mother, Shakeena, said.

Afsal, a DYFI activist, said he suspected that there might have been an attempt to implicate him deliberately in a case. He said local Congress leaders had issued threats in the wake of violence by Rahul Mamkootathil and his group in Adoor.

The family has filed complaints with the State Police Chief and the Human Rights Commission over the incident.