Thiruvananthapuram: Thousands of people in Kerala have come out on social media in support of a family that was allegedly harassed by a police officer, apparently for using a side road that avoided the toll gate on a highway.
The incident happened on Thursday night when Hari Ram, who is employed in Kochi, was travelling to his native village in Ottapalam on the Edapally-Mannuthy national highway with his wife and infant child. It created a furore only after a video of the incident surfaced on social media.
At the Paliekkara toll gate near Thrissur the family took a panchayat road that goes parallel to the highway and avoids the toll gate. The Chalakkudy deputy superintendent of police, K.K. Raveendran who was inspecting vehicles told Hari Ram the option to take the panchayat road was open only to local residents.
When Ram contested that opinion and said he was unaware of any such rule in the state, the police officer demanded to see his vehicle’s registration papers. A video of the incident that has gone viral since then, shows the officer demanding the original registration papers and Ram explaining that the law stipulates that vehicle owners need to carry only photocopies of the original documents.
Ram later complained to the home minister and the director general of police, alleging that he had to face high-handed behaviour from the police officer. Ram said the police officer not only forcibly grabbed his vehicle documents, but also advised him to “sit in protest with his family” if he had any complaints.
The officer was in civilian dress while conducting the vehicle search.
Raveendran denied any harassment on his part and said he had been searching cars based on an information that a vehicle with arms was in the vicinity.
Social media, however, was not impressed and over 7,000 people supported the online campaign against the officer, and over 1,000 people commented against him. The video of the incident has been viewed nearly 400,000 times.
While several people them called for punishment for the officer so that other road passengers do not suffer such harassment in future, others commented that the toll itself should be scrapped since the government collects road tax at the time of purchasing vehicles.