An eight-year-old girl who was allegedly insulted and humiliated by a Pink Police constable recently approached the Kerala High Court on Thursday seeking a directive to the State Government to take exemplary action against the police officer and a compensation of ₹50 lakh for infringing her and her father’s fundamental rights.
In her petition, the girl from Thiruvananthapuram said she was a Class III student. She along with her father Jayachandran was watching a giant Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) machinery being transported on a truck at Moonnumukku, near Attingal. A vehicle of the Pink Police was parked three metres from their scooter. When she and her father were drinking water from a nearby shop, civil police officer Rejitha shouted at them to return her mobile phone. The officer accused them of stealing her phone from the patrol vehicle and humiliated them in public.
In the meantime, another police officer in the squad recovered the mobile phone from the bag of Rajitha kept in the police vehicle.
She alleged that there were concerted efforts to protect the police officer even though the Kerala State Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes had held that the action of the officer amounted to infringement of their fundamental right to live with dignity guaranteed under Article 21.
In fact, the officer had been rewarded by transferring her to a station of her choice. She said the incident had caused her mental trauma, for which the state was tortiously liable and the petitioner had to be compensated.
