Additional Director of Police (ADGP) H Venkatesh, who is in charge of law and order, has directed the City police Commissioner, Thiruvananthapuram to conduct further investigation into the missing necklace case, wherein a Dalit woman was unjustly taken into custody by the Peroorkada Police.

After the incident became a big controversy and criticism was leveled against the Chief Minister’s Office, the ADGP first asked the policemen to behave respectfully. Later, the ADGP reiterated his stance in the video conference called by him. He clarified that strict action will be taken against the officers who do not behave respectfully. A departmental investigation is also underway into the incident.

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Bindu R, a 39-year-old Dalit woman, who hails from Panavoor near Nedumangad, was detained on April 23 after gold ornaments weighing 18 grams were reported stolen from a house at Ambalamukku where she was working as a domestic helper. The complainant was filed by house owner Omana Davis and Bindu was detained by Peroorkada police when she was returning home.

She was kept at the station for about 20 hours where she was verbally abused, mocked for her skin colour, deprived of sleep and even denied drinking water.

“When I asked for drinking water, I was told to have it from the toilet,” she said.

According to Bindu, she was taken to her house as part of investigation and was not allowed to talk to her family. The cops also threatened to implicate her daughters in the case if she did not confess to having committed the theft.

Despite the law that prohibits women from being taken to the station at night for questioning, the Peroorkada police showed extreme cruelty to Bindu. They interrogated her brutally for 20 hours without even giving her water to drink.

Hours after Bindu was taken into custody by the police, the necklace was found in the garbage bin of the complainant’s house. With this, the case was closed. However, the ADGP has directed to investigate the incident in detail, including whether the complaint was false. The distraught woman was also not ready to leave the harrowing experience just like that. She approached the Chief Minister’s Office, SC/ST Commission and the Police Complaints Authority.

Bindu also said that she faced apathy when she went to the Chief Minister’s office with her lawyer to file a complaint against being falsely accused in the theft case. She said that the Chief Minister’s office didn’t even read her complaint.

Bindu alleged that CM’s political secretary P Sasi did not even look at her complaint. When she told about the harassment at the police station, he said the police were bound to act accordingly if they received a complaint of theft.

“I went to the Secretariat and handed over a complaint to a sir at the chief minister’s office. My advocate told me that he was P Sasi, the CM’s political secretary. He didn’t read the complaint.Just put it there,” she said

The CM’s Office, meanwhile, rejected the charge and said the political secretary had forwarded the complaint of the woman for further action.

P Sasi said that Bindu’s complaint was taken seriously and was given direction to conduct an investigation in the matter and action against the policemen who misbehaved.

Amid mounting criticism against the Dalit woman’s custodial harassment, the police department on Monday finally sprung into action and suspended S G Prasad , sub-inspector of Peroorkada police station for “indiscipline and abuse of power.” He was suspended for custodial harassment of the Dalit woman detained on a complaint of theft that was later found to be baseless.