Kasaragod: A poultry dealer from Kasaragod who was on his way to deposit his daily collection in the bank a year ago now finds himself shuttling between court and vigilance office because his money was seized by cops saying there was no source.
According to the complaint filed by B M Ibrahim, the proprietor of BSK Chicken, Hosdurg Police in Kanhangad seized Rs 7 lakh from a poultry distributor on his way to the bank but recorded the seizure as only Rs 4.68 lakh in the FIR.
An RTI reply shows that Hosdurg Police did not mention any amount in the General Diary (GD), the official logbook where daily activities and incidents are recorded comprehensively and chronologically.
The incident happened at Koyapally near Ajanur grama panchayat, 3km from the police station, on August 25, 2023. Ibrahim said he was robbed by Hosdurg Station House Officer - Inspector KP Shine and Special Branch's Field Officer attached with Hosdurg Station Santhosh Babu. "I sent my complaints against them to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, State Police Chief Sheikh Darvesh Saheb and District Police Chief P Bijoy. After more than a year, no action has been taken against them," Ibrahim said.
Police allegedly snatched money from Ibrahim while on his way to the Federal Bank in Kanhangad. He needed to transfer the money to poultry farms in Tamil Nadu's Namakkal, known as the 'Poultry Town.' He has been buying chicken from Namakkal for the past 10 years. "Since it was a Friday, I had to send the money in the morning for them to ship my orders to meet the weekend demand in Kasaragod," said Ibrahim.
On August 25, 2023, when he stopped his motorcycle at Koyapally, a police officer in civil clothes tried to snatch his handbag with money. "I did not know he was a police officer, so I resisted," said Ibrahim. "He started shouting 'thief thief', and a crowd gathered around us and started assaulting me," he said.
Ibrahim later learned that the officer was Santhosh Babu, a Special Branch Field Officer attached to Hosdurg Police. Based on the officer's call, Hosdurg SHO Shine sent a team to detain Ibrahim. "I was taken to the District Hospital first and then to the station. They made me stand there till 7.30 pm and let me go without giving any documents," said Ibrahim.
When he filed an RTI with Hosdurg Police Station, he learned that he was not pressed with any charges and that the money was seized under Section 102 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Under this section, any police officer can seize property suspected of being stolen or found in circumstances that suggest a crime may have been committed. "That is not a section for the police to seize cash. If they suspect a person has unaccounted for money, they should report him to the Income Tax Department," said an advocate representing Ibrahim. But Ibrahim got a shocker when he saw that the police had recorded only Rs 4.68 lakh as cash seized and not Rs 7 lakh. He filed another RTI to know the content of the General Diary.
He found that the General Diary did not mention the amount seized from him. When the government or the police department took no action on his complaints, he wrote to the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB). Kasaragod District Police Chief Shilpa Dyavaiah said the incident happened before she took charge. "If a complaint is sent to me, I will look into it. But I understand that the Vigilance is investigating the complaint," she said.
Inspector Shine, who is now the SHO of Bekal Police Station, said that he did not seize the money, nor did he register the FIR. "I don't know why he is naming me as an accused. Let there be an investigation," he said. He is silent on the allegation that police underreported the seizure. Ibrahim said that he saw Shine and Santhosh Babu engaging in a long conversation the day the money was snatched from him, and as SHO, it was his responsibility to look into his complaint, too.
Ibrahim then filed a petition with the Hosdurg Judicial First Class Magistrate Court - I, requesting the return of his money. The Hosdurg Police submitted a report to the court stating that there was no evidence linking Ibrahim's money to any crime or indicating it was the proceeds of a crime. However, the police said that they could not find the source of the money, and so it should not be returned to him. Ibrahim said the police could not find the source of the money because they did not ask him for the source. "I will be submitting the bills to the court to prove the source of the money," he said. "What should we do when police turn robbers? I fully understand what (Nilambur MLA) PV Anvar is saying about the police," said Ibrahim.
'All hawala seizure should be investigated'
Kasaragod MLA and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader NA Nellikkunnu called for an investigation into all the money seized by the police under Section 102 of CrPC.He highlighted Ibrahim's case during a protest march of the Muslim Youth League to the District Police Chief, demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan over the allegations of corruption and criminality by police and his political secretary P Sasi. Nellikkunnu said that Hosdurg Police Station in Kanhangad registered 26 cases of hawala money seizures between 2020 and 2023 when Shine was the SHO.
"In Ibrahim's case, we have documentary evidence to prove that the police falsified the documents to embezzle the money. There should be an investigation into all the seizures," he told Onmanorama. He said the police officers at stations would get the confidence to rob common people only if they had the blessings of the higher-ups. Earlier in January, an NRI businessman accused Inspector Shine of trying to extort money from him by trying to frame him in a child sex assault case with the help of his lawyer, C H Nusaib. When the NRI went public with the audio recording of the calls, Inspector Shine pressed charges against the NRI under the POCSO Act.