By Delhi Police
Copyright thehindu
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah seeking an investigation into the “brutalisation” of two students from Kerala by the Delhi police on September 24.
The youngsters, Aswanth I.T. and Sudhin K, both students of the Zakir Hussain Delhi College, were allegedly assaulted by the police in conjunction with a “gang of miscreants” near the Red Fort for “wearing the traditional Kerala attire (mundu) and failing to speak fluently in Hindi.”
Mr. Vijayan said the wanton physical assault and public humiliation of the students on account of their different ethnicity deeply saddened Kerala. He noted that students from different States crisscross the country for educational purposes and employment.
Mr Vijayan noted that the onus was on provincial governments to ensure their security and welfare, and provide them with the guarantee that they would not be attacked or discriminated against for their respective culture, language, sartorial preferences, or ethnicity. He said Kerala strongly protested the “police-criminal” attack on the students.
Mr. Vijayan stated that when peacekeepers violated the law, they inadvertently encouraged and motivated criminal gangs that target outsiders, including students, jobseekers and visitors from other parts of the country. “Such lawbreaking by the police also endangers the safety, security, and well-being of individuals who move to different States for education and jobs,” he said.
The brutal attack on Mr. Aswanth and Mr. Sudhin had caused immense anxiety among parents and families in Kerala about the safety and security of their wards studying in colleges outside the State, especially in Delhi and other States in north India.
The students had told the media in Delhi that they had sought police help when accosted by a criminal gang. They alleged that the officers, instead of helping them, joined the miscreants in assaulting them and making them sit on their knees in front of visitors to the Red Fort. They alleged that their Hindi language inadequacy further incensed the officers and also the gang members.
The students alleged that the police hustled them into a van and rushed them to a police facility near the Red Fort. They accused the Delhi police of stripping and torturing them inside the “aid post”. The students claimed that the police threatened to file a false theft case against them if they did not pay ₹20,000.
