Suspension of Umesh: Is Kerala Police moral-policing its own members?

On September 19, DIG and Kozhikode Commissioner of Police A V George issued an order suspending civil police officer Umesh U on the grounds that it was prima facie found that he had lowered the dignity of the police force by luring a woman with false promises to have a live-in relationship with him.

Umesh publicly called this "moral policing". “I have respectfully accepted the suspension order that should be celebrated as a milestone in the history of Kerala Police's moral conduct," he noted sarcastically on his Facebook page. The suspension order was also published on his FB page.

Though having moral as a qualification before the police is an ideal that should be aspired to, the consensus of the age has bracketed the practice of 'moral policing' with perversions like voyeurism.

The woman involved, 31-year-old music composer-singer and government employee Athira K Krishnan, shot off a complaint to the North Zone IG saying the preliminary report used to suspend Umesh was fabricated and personally insulting.

A mother's complaint and police probe

Kozhikode Commissioner A V George said he had not acted on his own but on a complaint filed by Athira's mother, Sarada Krishnankutty. In her complaint, Sarada said she wanted her daughter freed from Umesh, a married man. The mother alleged that Umesh had taken her daughter away from her house and was living together with her in a flat.

District Special Branch assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Sudersan K was asked to do a preliminary probe. Sudersan's report, which seconded the mother's charges, was the basis for Umesh's suspension.

The ACP's report said that Umesh was a married man who had been living separately from his wife since 2011. He has a 12-year-old daughter, too.

It says that Umesh had got close to Athira promising that he would marry her once he secured his divorce. It was also said that Umesh, to get a flat in Athira's name, gave the real estate broker the false impression that he and Athira were family. The report also mentioned that he was a regular visitor to the flat.

Moral conduct code for police

Former DGP Jacob Punnoose said if the police report was taken at face value there were enough reasons to pull up Umesh for moral turpitude.

“Enforcement of morality in the police force is not moral policing,” he said. “Once you are in the police, your power of expression and even your fundamental rights are restrained. A married officer having an extramarital fling is considered conduct unbecoming of a police officer. It is incumbent upon the police to adhere to publicly held norms of morality,” he said.

What these norms are is vague. Punnoose said there was no written down behavioural code for policemen. “It is not defined. It is what a normal parent would not want his son to do,” he said. Punnoose also said the concept was given a “wide latitude”, meaning that it could include within its scope even conduct that a few generations ago were considered improper like a married man getting friendly with a woman other than his wife.

Lost in translation

Umesh said the strict standards of morality did not apply in his case as he was judged on the basis of a stack of lies. Athira said what was given as her statement in the ACP's report was a repetition of her mother's complaint. "They wrote my statement in the way they thought fit and then forced me to write 'Heard my statement read out to me. Fine' and sign under it," Athira said.

It was when she finally got hold of her statement that she realised the unfairness of the police procedure. "What I had said was ignored and instead were written things that favoured the complainant (her mother)," Athira said.

Umesh said the issue would have ended had the police faithfully recorded Athira's statement. "She is a 31-year-old independent working woman with a mind of her own," Umesh said.

According to Athira, she left her house to independently pursue her passion for music. She is also a school counsellor under the Social Justice Department.

Commissioner George said it was hard to believe that an independent woman like Athira could be forced to make a statement. "She is an artiste, an independent woman. How can such a woman be made to do things against her wish," George said. "Anyway, she has the right to deny it. I have asked the Nadakkavu Circle Inspector to conduct an oral inquiry. She is well within her rights to say that the statement recorded in her name was false," George said.

Athira-Umesh bond

Athira has both professional and friendly ties with Umesh. She had composed and sung songs written by Umesh, who occasionally pens lyrics and directs music videos.

Umesh said it was true that he had helped Athira in setting up the flat. "But other friends of hers also helped. And I was not a regular visitor to her flat. They could have easily got the information from the house owner," Umesh said, and added: "It is untrue that the real estate broker had said we had misled him. He knows us intimately. His son has been part of our music videos," Umesh said.

Act of public defamation

Athira has a graver grouse than the mere fabrication of facts. "When it is clear that I have the capability to live alone and my friends were not regular visitors to my place, and also that it was not in the least illegal even if they had, my self-respect and individuality as a woman were insulted in a despicable manner by Commissioner A V George in the suspension order he had served on Umesh," Athira said in her missive to the North Zone IG.

She said her name was unnecessarily mentioned in a public document and wanted a case to be registered against George.

George said the suspension order was a communication between, in his words, "the issuing authority and the delinquent". "It was Umesh who publicised it. No one can say the Police Department did it. It was the received copy of the suspension order with Umesh's signature on it that was uploaded on his FB page," the Commissioner said.

Further, he said he could not serve a vague suspension order. "I have to tell him why he is being disciplined and have to specifically give him the names of the people involved. The complaint was that he was having an illicit relationship with a woman. I have to mention the woman's name in the order," he said.

The Commissioner said this was ordinary practice. "The FIR or chargesheet in a POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) case, for instance, is a public document and it will have the name of the victim. It is only when we make the name public that it becomes wrong and unethical," he said.

Umesh had earlier put up FB posts questioning the police handling of rioters during the Sabarimala agitations in 2018, against the practice of lower-ranked policemen holding umbrellas for seniors, and recently he posted that all policemen should carefully read the NIA court's verdict granting bail to Alan Shuhaib and Thaha Fasal who were charged under the draconian UAPA (Unlawful Activities Prevention Act). For the last one, Commissioner George had sent him a disciplinary order on September 22 for which he is near certain to lose two increments.

And now, for talking to the media, yet another disciplinary action is awaiting him. “That is something I deserve as it is against police conduct,” Umesh said.