News Report Suggests Police Demanded Money To Release Two Girls To Their Parents: Kerala High Court Takes Suo Motu Cognizance

The Kerala High Court on Wednesday took suo motu cognizance of a news report which accused the Assistant Sub Inspector of Police (ASI) of demanding money for the release of two girls from children's home, to their parents.

Justice Devan Ramachandran strongly condemned the incident and remarked:

"If the allegations are proved to be true, this is a serious matter. This is a dangerous game." 

The Court thereby directed the Kochi City Police Commissioner to submit a sealed report in this regard. The Director-General of Police and the Home Secretary were suo motu impleaded as opposite parties in the matter. 

The High Court's intervention was based on a press report that contended that the Police was deliberately denying justice to a family. 

According to Mathrubhumi newspaper, a Delhi couple, who migrated to Kochi 11 years ago, alleged that the Kochi police demanded Rs. 5 lakh from them for the release of their daughters.

The two daughters had gone missing reportedly after falling prey to cybercrime through which the eldest daughter's alleged online boyfriend convinced her to leave her home. Consequently, the sisters had apparently gone to Delhi without their parents' knowledge. Upon finding that their daughters were missing, a complaint was immediately lodged with the Kochi police.  

The police upon preliminary enquiry found that the girls had taken a train to Delhi. The parents soon flew to Delhi and continued their search with the help of Delhi and Haryana Police.

Empathizing with the plight of the family, the Delhi Police traced the girls to be with two men Faizen and Subair. 

Upon examination, it was revealed that the duo had raped the elder daughter.

Accordingly, Subair was arrested by the Kerala police, and the girls were taken into their custody. 

They failed to arrest the second accused; instead, they took in the three brothers of the victim. According to the reports, the Police made the brothers sign a document, , written in Malayalam, that declared that they molested their sisters. 

The parents have disclosed that their boys are only conversant in Hindi and that they signed the document without understanding its contents. 

Accordingly, the girls were housed at a Children's Home. When the parents requested for their daughters to be released, the ASI allegedly suggested that the accused be allowed to marry their elder daughter.

Following the parents' objection to this vile request, it is alleged that the police demanded Rs. 5 lakhs from them to release their daughters. 

When they refused to make the payment, the Police apparently threatened that the parents will not see any of the five children anymore. 

However, the ASI has vehemently denied these allegations and asserted that the brothers were arrested after the girl's statement mentioned that she was forced to flee due to constant abuse from her brothers, including the youngest brother. 

Government Pleader E.C Bineesh informed Live Law that the allegations raised against the brothers were not trivial; and that they were repeated before the doctor as well as the police officials. He added that complaints against the police are common in such cases and that the Police cannot defer from the investigation.

Two of the brothers have been taken into judicial custody. 

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