Cops thrash young man in Chennai, video goes viral

A video of Chennai cops thrashing a 21-year-old young man, tying him on a pole in a busy road in Chennai, while his protesting mother is held by a woman traffic police has gone viral in social media. Three videos of the altercation have emerged in social media, where the Chennai city traffic police personnel were found assaulting a woman and her son in broad day light in Chennai’s crowded shopping area, T. Nagar. While the police claim that the man turned violent and his mother began attacking the policemen, when he was apprehended by them for riding triples and not wearing helmet, the video has created much public outrage, thus pushing down the image of the Tamil Nadu police.

The victim identified as Prakash, a resident of Saligramam in Chennai is now lodged in Puzhal jail for unleashing violence on policemen who apprehended him. A case has been registered against Prakash under Section 294 (b) for uttering obscene words in public, Section 427 for causing mischief and Section 332 for causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty. His mother who was reportedly hit by a walkie talkie by the policemen is now admitted as an inpatient in the Stanley medical college hospital in Chennai for treatment. Of course this is not the first incident that has witnessed public outrage against the police.

The three videos doing rounds on social media clearly show the altercation between the victim and the policemen, and the high handedness of the traffic cops. In one video, the policemen drag a woman and pulling a young man, tying him on a pole, one police personnel trying to break off his hands. In another, the young man is seen arguing with the policemen and recording a video of it. The third video, reportedly a CCTV footage, from one of the shops in the crowded T. Nagar, shows the cops pulling the mother and the young man intervening.

While the police has sent out explanation on how the young man abused the police and did not allow them to do their duty, the video has only added fuel to the burning public anger against the Tamil Nadu police. It may be recalled that recently, a pregnant woman, Usha, was pushed down from the bike, by a policeman, while she was riding pillion. Usha’s death had sparked a slew of protests and invited the wrath of the people. The 34-year-old Usha’s death was termed as the consequence of a cop’s ego.

While these have been instances of the high handedness of the traffic cops, incidents of suicides and distress calls have put the Tamil Nadu police in a fix. The late AIADMK supremo, J. Jayalalithaa was always fond of her police force. A chief minister who would never think of relinquishing the Home Department, always found it close to her heart and she even went to the extent of calling the Tamil Nadu police force equal to the Scotland yard, for their abilities. And just an year after her death, Tamil Nadu’s police department, has invited the wrath of the people through a few incidents in the near future.

On March 9, 33-year-old sub-inspector Satish Kumar shot himself to death. Sub Inspector Satish Kumar, a bachelor, shot himself with a pistol at the Ayanavaram police station, where he was serving. While the police officers said, the investigations were on, it was said that work stress and pressure from the higher officials pushed him to commit suicide.

Apparently, Satish Kumar’s suicide was the second such incident in a week. His suicide came just two days after a 26-year-old police constable Arunraj committed suicide by shooting himself with a rifle while on duty at the burial site of late chief minister Jayalalithaa.

And days later another police constable made a distress call on Facebook where he said that he was stressed and was not allowed to go on leave to meet his sick son. In a video posted on his Facebook account, Bharathi, a constable at the Pallikarani police station claimed that he had asked the inspector for a week’s leave for his son’s treatment but he was denied leave. “No one understood my problem. I was confused whether to end my life by shooting myself or carry on with my duty. Finally, I decided to go on 10 days’ leave,” he said in the video.

In another Facebook post, a young IPS officer Aravindhan, had posted pictures of three men, severely injured, saying that the trio slipped in the bathroom after hitting a police officer on duty. This post too gained the wrath of the people for it only indicated the height of arrogance of the police. His FB post which was later deleted was so brazen that it meant to showcase the might of the police force.

Once Jayalalithaa had accused the Karunanidhi government by saying “Kaval thuraiyin eeral kettuvitathu (the liver of the police force has rottened)”, but now when her followers rule the state, the Tamil Nadu police have started reaping the wrath of the people due to their brazen acts.