CCTV footage emerges showing SHO assaulting woman at police station in Kochi

A CCTV visual has emerged showing a police officer pushing and slapping a woman on her face, who was reportedly three months pregnant at the time, inside the Town North police station. The incident took place more than a year ago, in June 2024.

The officer has been identified as then Station House Officer (SHO) Prathapa Chandran, who is now reportedly posted at the Aroor police station in Alappuzha district. Shortly after the video surfaced, the Chief Minister instructed the State Police Chief to take stern action against the officer.

The woman in the video, identified as N.J. Shymol, and her husband, Ben Jo, had held a press conference after the incident, accusing police officers of assaulting them and foisting a fabricated case. They alleged that Mr. Jo was taken into custody for filming the forceful detention of two youths accused of theft in front of the tourist home they run near the Ernakulam North railway station. He was subsequently arraigned as the third accused in the case on charges including obstructing police personnel from discharging their duty.

Ms. Shymol was allegedly assaulted when she went to the station with her toddler to inquire about her husband. The video shows the officer, in plain clothes, shoving her and then slapping her. At the time, however, the police had refuted the allegations as baseless and claimed that Mr. Jo had previously been arrested for attacking a woman who had booked a room at his tourist home. An internal inquiry by the department had also absolved the officer concerned.

“I languished in jail for five days without committing any crime. My wife was falsely accused of throwing our child inside the station and creating a ruckus. She was assaulted despite my pleading that she was pregnant. Instead she was accused of attacking the officer. We had petitioned the Chief Minister, the State Human Rights Commission, and the Information Commission, but to no avail. When I was taken for a medical examination at Ernakulam General Hospital, a young medical officer there asked me to sign a blank paper, which I refused,” Mr. Jo told media persons after the CCTV visual emerged.

He said he would initiate legal action against the officer concerned after consulting his lawyer. Ms. Shymol said the officer should be made to undergo the same ordeal that she and her family were subjected to in order to understand their emotional trauma.

Meanwhile, the incident has triggered a political controversy, with critics portraying it as yet another instance of police high-handedness. Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala has called for the immediate suspension and arrest of the officer. The persecution of a helpless woman in this manner, he said in a statement, was unheard of even in primitive societies. A situation has arisen in which women cannot approach a police station, and the Chief Minister, who holds the Home portfolio, must take responsibility, he added.