UPDATE: On 22 July 2018, Haroon Sait wrote an article for The Quint, detailing his ordeal with an inspector who allegedly assaulted him over a bribe. A day later, the Commissioner of Police, Chennai, met Sait and assured support to the family. The accused inspector has been suspended from duty, Sait was told.
Read Sait’s first-hand account here:
I am a 22-year-old undergraduate student. On the 19th of July, around 11.30 pm, my two friends and I were returning from the marriage reception of another close friend, and we were stopped by some police officers as part of their routine checking on Spurtank road, Chetpet, Chennai.
Two of my friends were riding on an Activa scooter and I was alone on my scooter. My friend, who was riding his scooter, did not have his license with him and was asked to pay up a bribe of Rs 300, which he very respectfully paid to a constable as instructed by the Chetpet sub-inspector M H Ilayaraja. He was not given a receipt and so it is clearly a bribe.
When my license and copy of RC book were checked, the sub-inspector demanded that I produce the original RC book, which I obviously did not have at the moment and only had a photocopy. The sub-inspector insisted that I produce the original copy, indirectly harassing me and compelling me to pay a bribe like my friends did.
I was firm that I would not pay a bribe.
By now it was around 12 am. I called my parents, informed them that the police were checking us and told them that I would reach home in another half hour. I told the sub-inspector that it was very late and I had to get back home.
I gave him my scooter key and told him to take it to the police station – on the condition that he gives me a receipt as proof of my leaving my scooter there. I told him that I would come with the original documents in the morning and take my scooter back.
This infuriated him and he slapped me so hard that my spectacles flew off and landed on the ground. He the started whacking me with a lathi continuously.
I cried out in pain and fear, but the five constables who were with him didn’t help and stood as mute spectators to this entire event.
He kept hitting me until I apologised to him around 10 times.
By this time, my left wrist was severely swollen.
I took out my phone to call my parents and inform them about the situation. He snatched my phone and told me that I am not allowed to call anyone. He also snatched the mobile phones of my two friends, so that they could not call anyone either.
He then told one of the constables to take me and my bike to the Chetpet police station. By the time I reached the police station, he had informed the officer in the station to make me sit on a bench and not let me make any calls.
I was persistent that I wanted to call home since my hands were swollen, bleeding and my entire body was hurting. Just then, two other officers began harassing me, accusing me of speaking rudely to the sub-inspector.
By now, it was past 1 am.
My father figured something was suspicious and called one of my uncles, who stays nearby. He came hurriedly to the police checking point and took cognisance of the situation. He asked my friends – who were being held up despite paying the bribe – to join him, and together they came to the Chetpet police station.
Soon, my father, along with some of my cousins, reached the police station. By now it was around 1.30 am and I had still not been given any medical aid. When so many showed up, it became an embarrassing situation for the entire police station.
I never saw sub-inspector Ilayarja after that.
I was taken to the nearest Dr Mehta's Hospital.
The doctor told me to stay strong and informed me that this was the second incident of police brutality that he had seen in recent days. The previous case had been silenced and had ended in a compromise, he said.
I stayed there the entire night – and the next morning, many police officers visited my room (number 307), being very friendly. They were trying to persuade us to ‘compromise’ on the case.
Without our knowledge, they were also pressuring the hospital management to discharge me from the hospital.
Around 11 am, the hospital staff told me that the wounds would soon heal, convincing us that it was alright to be discharged from the hospital.
We stood firm and told the staff that we would not leave until a complaint was registered. We said that we would give a written complaint after the Friday congregational prayer.
At around 3 pm, we handed a written complaint to the police officers, who had been roaming around in the premises the entire time.
Since our complaint, not a single police officer has met us. Now there are no police officers around our room too!
We are also suspecting that the hospital is manupulating my diagnosis documentation, under the pressure of the Chetpet police department.
We have decided that we will leave the hospital only if they give us the correct diagnosis documentation, covering all the aspects of the injury, and also an acknowledgement of the written complaint from the police department.
We have also decided to pursue this issue legally to make sure that not only does SI Ilayaraja get punished, but also to make sure that this does not happen with anyone else.
We have also sent a complaint to the CM Cell, Commissioner, State and National Human Rights Commission.
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