The Kerala Police have registered a case against the daughter of a senior IPS officer of Kerala cadre under non-bailable charges for allegedly assaulting and verbally abusing his official driver amidst rising complaints about ill-treatment of personnel deployed as camp followers of senior officers by higher-ups and their family members.
The police have also booked Gavaskar, police driver of ADGP Sudesh Kumar, on the basis of a complaint from the latter’s daughter on the charge of outraging the modesty of woman. Gavaskar, presently undergoing treatment at the District Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram, said the officer and his daughter had been ill-treating him for a long time.
The issue has already become a subject of hot discussion in the State with the Kerala Police Association announcing that it would give all possible support to Gavaskar and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who is also holding the Home portfolio, intervening by collecting information from ADGP (South Zone) Anil Kant and assuring “stringent action”.
The Government has ordered a probe by a Deputy Superintendent of Police into the matter. On Friday, Gavaskar’s wife Reshma met the Chief Minister personally and submitted to him a complaint over the ill-treatment the senior police official and his family members had been meting out to her husband.
In his complaint, Gavaskar, who has been serving as driver for Sudesh Kumar, head of Armed Police Battalion, said the senior officer’s daughter had abused him verbally and hit him hard on his neck and shoulders with her mobile phone. Gavaskar is attached to the Special Armed Police camp in Thiruvananthapuram.
According to him, the incident that formed the basis for the complaint took place when the ADGP’s daughter and her mother had gone for a morning walk. The woman, irked by a delay in bringing the vehicle to her, abused Gavaskar verbally and later assaulted him when he asked her to stop abusing him, his complaint said.
According to the police, a case was registered late Thursday night against the ADGP’s daughter under various sections of the IPC including 332 for voluntarily causing hurt to prevent a public servant from performing his duty, 294-B for verbally abusing a person and 324 for causing hurt using weapon.
A case was registered against Gavaskar also on the basis of a counter-complaint lodged by the ADGP’s daughter under Section 354 for outraging the modesty of woman amidst the allegation that there had been efforts to book the woman under less serious sections. It is also alleged that efforts had been made to force the driver to withdraw his complaint.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Friday that there would be a fair inquiry and appropriate action in the case. “This is a highly condemnable incident. Everybody is equal before the law. Superior officers are not above the law just because of the positions they hold. Instructions have already been for taking stringent legal action,” Pinarayi told newsmen.
After meeting the Chief Minister, Gavaskar’s wife told the media that she had described to him the ill-treatment including mental torture being meted out to her husband (by the top police official and his family). She added that Gavaskar would meet the Chief Minister once he was out of the hospital after treatment.
Meanwhile, the Kerala Police Association (KPA) is reported to have submitted a complaint to the Chief Minister against ADGP Sudesh Kumar. “We will give total support to Gavaskar, who became victim of this torture because such torture should not take place again. Such tendencies should not prevail in the police force,” said a KPA office-bearer.