Kerala: Police take soldier into custody for allegedly giving false statement on assault

In a major twist to the alleged case of assault on an Army jawan in Kerala by six persons and 'PFI' written on his back, the police on Tuesday have taken the complainant into custody along with his friend for allegedly giving a false statement about the incident. 

Soldier Shine Kumar and his friend Joshi were taken into police custody on Tuesday around 2pm following interrogation.

According to the police, the soldier's friend in his statement has said that Kumar wanted to become famous and that prompted him to carry out the act with Joshi's help.

Police also recovered the green paint, brush and tape allegedly used to write ‘PFI’ and tape Kumar's hands in the incident from the friend's home. Joshi reportedly told the police that he had bought the paint and the brush from Chirayinkeez, with which he wrote ‘PFI’ on Kumar’s back.

PFI was supposedly written to refer to the Popular Front of India, an organisation that was banned by the central government last year. 

Joshi also revealed to the police that Kumar had instructed him to use a blade and tear the shirt he was wearing and beat him, which Joshi said he denied.

"I was drunk, so I initially wrote DFI, but he (Kumar) said to write PFI. So I made it PFI. Then he asked me to beat him up, but I said I couldn't because I was drunk,” Joshi said.

Police officials claimed they had doubts since they received the complaint about the incident. There was no sign of any assault at the deserted spot where the attack was said to have taken place, informed cops, adding that they probed deeper to get to the root of the matter. Police had also said that there were no injuries on the soldier.

According to the soldier's complaint, a case was initially registered against six persons.

The soldier, who is posted in the Indian Army's Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME) Corps, in his complaint had claimed that he was allegedly beaten up near his home in Kadakkal on Sunday night by six persons and 'PFI' was written on his back with green paint when he was returning home on his two-wheeler after paying money to his friend, Joshi.  However, when questioned, Kumar gave contradictory statements.

After being interrogated till 11pm on Monday night, Kumar was again interrogated on September 26 morning.

Based on Kumar’s complaint, police on Monday had lodged an FIR under sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 341 (wrongful restraint) of the Indian Penal Code against six identifiable persons.

When police officials probed as to why the complainant was at the spot, the duo had said that somebody was lying drunk in the nearby rubber plantation and asked the soldier whether he knew that person. He had claimed in his complaint that he accompanied the men to the rubber plantation and on reaching there, someone kicked him from behind and then the assailants tied his hands, beat him up and wrote PFI on his back.