The Kerala government is waging a legal battle against Devapriya, an eight-year-old Dalit girl and the daughter of a daily wage rubber tapper, who was allegedly harassed by the police. It has filed an appeal in the division bench of the Kerala High Court against the order of a single bench to provide compensation to the child.
The girl, who had been standing by the side of a national highway watching the trucks on the road, was accused of stealing the mobile phone of a woman police officer. On the writ petition filed by her father on her behalf, the single bench, in an order dated December 22, 2021, asked the state government to pay the child ₹1,50,000 in compensation along with ₹25,000 for court expenses.
Refusing to pay the compensation, the government filed an appeal with the division bench, arguing that the act of the woman police officer was not intentional, and that the single bench had not ascertained the complete facts.
The background
On August 27, 2021, Devapriya was standing on the side of the national highway near her house in Thiruvananthapuram with her father Jayachandran, to view the shipment of a cargo containing the settling chamber for the Trisonic Wind Tunnel being built at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre at Thumba.
As the cargo movement attracted a crowd, cops were deployed. Rajitha, a woman police officer who was part of the ‘Pink Police’ team, suddenly noticed that her mobile phone was missing. She spotted the girl and her father standing near the police car and started questioning them. Someone among the crowd took a video of the cops questioning the child and her father, which clearly shows Rajitha roughing them up.
The woman police officer accused Jayachandran of taking the phone from the car and handing it over to his daughter for hiding. The child began to cry. Jayachandran tried to convince the cops that he had not stolen the phone. It is also alleged that the cops physically examined the child. After a few minutes, another woman police officer called Rajitha’s number and the phone was found inside the car.
Widespread anger
The video that went viral in social media caused widespread anger against the police. Jayachandran moved the court to seek justice for his child’s trauma. With the help of DISHA, a human rights collective, he filed a writ petition in the High Court seeking compensation for the insult, humiliation and injury suffered for no reason.
Also read: HC awards ₹1.5 lakh to Dalit girl harassed, humiliated by police
The single bench of the High Court issued an order in favour of Devapriya with critical remarks on the cops. Rajitha extended an apology, but the court refused to accept the same with the observation that it is the child and her father to decide whether or not to accept the apology. The court also brought a judgment in favour of Devapriya, with an observation that ‘we cannot let our daughters grow up in anger’.
The Kerala government’s appeal argued that the claims made by the girl and her father were untrue. “It is true that the woman police officer had the wrong impression that the child and her father had stolen the phone, but she did not have any mala fide intention while questioning them,” it said. Neither did the cop use any derogatory language against the child and father, it added.
Incorrect, says government
“The facts and circumstances of the incidents are not correctly brought to the notice of the court. Nothing transpired between the child and the woman police officer. The conversations happened only with her father,” claimed the appeal petition submitted to the division bench. The government further argued that the single bench judge had wrongly invoked public law jurisdiction to award compensation.
“There are reports submitted by two state agencies — the Child Rights Commission and the SC/ST Commission. Both the agencies have ratified the facts as stated by the girl and her father. Besides, the police report on the matter also does not dismiss the version of incidents as narrated by the child and her father. Ignoring all these, the government has declared a battle on a small child,” said advocate Preetha, who represented Devapriya and her father in the High Court.
“I am a rubber tapper and struggling to survive. I don’t know why the government is so adamant against me and my child,” Jayachandran told The Federal. This being off-season for rubber tapping, he does not have work on all days of the week. Yet, he is determined to fight the battle ahead.