Chathannoor Assistant Commissioner Gopakumar told South First that Naik Kiran Kumar was involved in two other such assault cases.
The incident occurred in Chethapoor near Kottiyam in the Kollam district of Kerala on the evening of Sunday, 16 April. (iStockPhoto)
Did the Kerala Police manhandle a member of the Indian Army at his home, as actor-turned-Tamil Nadu BJP leader Khushbu Sundar suggested while sharing the video on social media?
After the video went viral, the cops clarified that the scuffle that was seen in the video happened because the soldier — identified as Naik Kiran Kumar — physically accosted one of them, and they were trying to subdue him.
They also said that Kumar had a history of such assaults, including one instance where he broke someone’s nose.
The video went viral after Khushbu Sundar shared it on Twitter in the early hours of Tuesday, 18 April.
“Kerala police manhandling and arresting an Indian Army Soldier based on a local issue. Naik Kiran Kumar of Madras regiment taken to custody in this brutal manner by Kerala police. Why this brutality @pinarayivijayan Sir?? [sic]” she wrote in the tweet.
Her post received more than 600 retweets and was watched nearly 1.5 lakh times by Wednesday evening.
Kerala police manhandling and arresting an Indian Army Soldier based on a local issue. Naik Kiran Kumar of Madras regiment taken to custody in this brutal manner by Kerala police. Why this brutality @pinarayivijayan Sir?? pic.twitter.com/BLyDX8Xuly
— KhushbuSundar (Modi ka Parivaar) (@khushsundar) April 17, 2023
The incident occurred in Chethapoor near Kottiyam in the Kollam district of Kerala on the evening of Sunday, 16 April.
When South First contacted the district police chief Merin Joseph, she refuted the allegations against the police and said: “There was a petition against him and we have registered a case based on the complaint. When police officers went for an inquiry, he resisted and had to be taken to the police station.”
She then directed South First to the assistant commissioner for further details of the incident.
Kollam’s Chathannoor Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) B Gopakumar told South First that it all began with an altercation between two groups at a public function of a Nair Service Society (NSS) unit, which turned violent.
“There is an NSS Karayogam (unit) in that area. During a public function of the NSS Karayogam, the soldier’s father Thulasidharan Pillai was accused of a tussle with a woman who attended the meeting. Pillai apparently beat the woman. He also sustained minor injuries,” said Gopakumar.
According to the ACP, both groups complained to the police and the circle inspector (CI) of the area summoned both parties to the police station.
However, that evening, Kumar went to the NSS unit president’s house and threatened and abused his wife.
The police officers, including the CI, subsequently visited Kumar’s house to enquire about this incident.
“Thulasidharan Pillai invited the officers into his home. Initially, his son was not present there. As soon as the soldier arrived, he accosted a police officer named Sujith, holding him by the collar, tearing his uniform in the process. The viral video was shot while trying to defuse the situation,” said Gopakumar.
Sujith was hospitalised, and the police filed a case against the soldier under Sections 332, 353, and 294B of the IPC.
According to the police, there had been similar complaints against Kumar earlier, where he was granted bail in court.
“When we investigated the person’s background, he appeared to have a previous history of committing such acts,” said the ACP.
Kumar, it emerged, had been booked in two cases — one in 2007 and the other in 2019 — under IPC Section 326.
The 2007 incident was an attack against a person called Unnikrishnan Pillai, which was settled between both parties.
“In 2019, a case was registered against him for breaking the nose of a person during an Onam celebration event. The case is ongoing and the high court has given him bail,” said Gopakumar.
“Apart from this, there is a case against him for drunken driving at the Anchalammood Police Station. When we inquired, we understood that he is a person who regularly abuses and threatens people in that area,” said the ACP.
A report on the previous cases against Kumar was sent to the police commissioner.
Kumar also underwent medical tests to confirm whether he had consumed alcohol during the tussle with the police.
“The police came to our house and created all the trouble. They pulled him down from the couch where he was sitting to the floor. I couldn’t record everything as I ran away from the house,” Kumar’s wife told reporters in Kollam.
Following the tussle with the police, Kiran Kumar’s mother also sought treatment at the Kollam district hospital.
In October last year, four Kerala Police officials in the Kollam district were suspended from service for brutally torturing a soldier named Vishnu (30) and his brother Vignesh (25).
The incident resulted in retired army officers in Kerala staging a demonstration against the attack.
South First is yet to receive a response from the public relations officer of the Indian Army regarding the latest incident.
The story will be updated when a response is received.
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