Kerala High Court trashes Police report defending erring Pink Police official

Kochi: The Kerala High Court, which has been hauling up police and the government over their inaction in a false theft case against an 8-year-old girl, on Monday refused to accept the report filed by the state.

The state government's report pointed out that the police officer had not misbehaved or done anything that would have caused mental agony to the little girl.

To substantiate it, the statement of four witnesses was also produced before the court.

The girl had approached the High Court seeking a compensation for the trauma she faced due to Rejitha, the pink police official. During the last hearing, Justice Devan Ramachandran had said it was justified to grant compensation as sought by the petitioner and asked the government as to how much it was willing to pay her.

To this, the state government said they do not intent to pay any compensation as there was no wrong done at all.

The court then asked a top police official to see the video of the entire sequence of events and posted the case for Wednesday.

This was the fifth time in the past six weeks that the court spoke tough against the acts of both the woman police official and the top brass of the police for not taking any action.

The Pink Police unit of the Kerala Police is an all women team that aims at protecting women in public, private, and digital spaces.

In her petition, the girl stated that despite several pleas, no action was taken against the woman police officer, hence they moved the court for justice and after the trial began they said since they failed to get justice from any quarters, they have rejected the unconditional apology that the erring police official had tendered.

The incident occurred on August 27, when 38-year-old Jayachandran and his daughter were out on the main road in the outskirts here near Attingal to watch the movement of a huge trailer carrying equipment to the ISRO unit.

Suddenly Rejitha, the woman officer finding her mobile missing, accused Jayachandran who was standing near the police patrol vehicle, of stealing it. She even said that he must have passed the mobile to his eight-year-old daughter, his accomplice.

She publicly humiliated the father and the daughter and threatened to take both of them to the nearby police station. This was witnessed by a large crowd.

Later, Rejitha found the mobile phone in the vehicle. The entire episode was filmed by an onlooker, who shared it on social media and it went viral.

On August 31, Jayachandran approached the state police chief Anil Kant seeking action against Rejitha, as his daughter was in a state of shock for being publicly admonished.

Promising action, Kant, asked South Zone IG Harshita Attaluri to conduct a probe and Rejitha was transferred.

However, it was found out that Rejitha was transferred to a more convenient location and there was actually no action taken against her.

Finding no further action in September, the family observed a day long sit-in in front of the Kerala Secretariat protesting inaction against the woman police officer. When this also went unnoticed, the family approached the High Court.

Hearing the statement given by the government in the court, Jayachandran said it's really surprising that they say four witnesses testifying there was no bad behaviour at all.

"I wish to ask, till date, despite me knocking on all doors, the police probe team till date has not taken a statement from my daughter or me, but they took statements from 4. They are trying to protect this erring lady official and none knows why the state government is spending so much money to protect her," said Jayachandran.