Kerala govt opposes plea for compensation by 8-year-old falsely accused of theft by policewoman

The Kerala High Court on Monday questioned the State government's stand in opposing the plea by an 8-year-old Dalit girl who had approached the Court seeking compensation after she was publicly humiliated by a police officer, who had falsely accused her of stealing a mobile phone. .The State through its Additional Public Prosecutor argued that there was no violation of the child's fundamental rights under Article 21, a stand which was questioned by Justice Devan Ramachandran.The Court remarked that it seems the government was saying there is no violation merely because it does not recognise the fundamental rights which are being violated."They (State) are saying there is no violation of fundamental rights because they don't recognise fundamental rights. Some people are more less than others, other people are more more than others, maybe that is what it is, we do not know," the judge remarked orally. .Justice Ramachandran has issued several orders in the matter before pulling up the police and the State for its inaction, even directing the State to look into the possibility of compensating the minor girl monetarily, as sought for by the petitioner, under constitutional torts.At the hearing today, Additional Public Prosecutor P Narayanan submitted an argument note stating that a public law remedy can only be availed when the facts are undisputed and there is an undeniable finding of violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.He further argued that the Court cannot take cognizance of this incident because nothing has been placed on record including the visuals if any. He contended that in the absence of the same the Court will be obligated to go by the statements and affidavits of the police officers.An affidavit was filed on behalf of the Inspector General of Police in which she contradicted the statements made in the petition, stating that the girl did not cry because of the actions of the police, rather from the crowd assembling. Other similar statements were made but one in particular caught the attention of the Court where she said "he (the father) voluntarily raised his shirt to prove his innocence as seen from the video circulated in social media""Any normal person can only infer that the officer and someone else had seen this video and it is part of the internal inquiry conducted by the police department. However, for some inexplicable reasons the same has not been produced before the court even though every other statement, from witnesses and such others, have been made available", the Court noted.It firmly opined that the video mentioned in the affidavit must be placed on record and directed the Additional Public Prosecutor to do the same. .The minor girl had moved the Court seeking directions to the State to take stringent action against the police officer, later identified as one Rejitha, who had allegedly humiliated and traumatised her.The incident occurred when the girl and her father were part of a crowd of people watching equipment being transferred to the Indian Space Research Organisation centre in Thiruvananthapuram. Several police officers were deployed for crowd control, including a pink-patrol squad.As the crowd stood watching, the accused lady police officer allegedly ran towards the father-daughter duo and accused them of stealing her mobile phone, which drew a crowd around them as well.According to the petitioners, the police officer used derogatory language and intimidated and threatened them, following which the girl was left traumatised, and required counselling.The mobile phone was later found in the vehicle of the officer but the entire event was filmed by an onlooker and went viral on social media.The father of the girl had approached the State Police Chief seeking action against the police officer but to no avail. They then moved the Kerala High Court through advocate Preetha AK.Subsequently, the police officer in question was transferred and she tendered an unconditional apology to the young girl, a copy of which was submitted to the Court. .The matter will be taken up next on December 22.