Kasaragod: In another heartbreaking case of police high-handedness, a veteran autorickshaw driver took his own life, driven by despair and in protest, after the Kasaragod Town Police Sub-Inspector refused to release his vehicle for five days over a petty offence.

Yakoob Abdul Sathar (57) went live on Facebook and narrated his ordeal before taking the extreme step in his rented house near Kasaragod Railway Station in Thalangara on Monday, October 7.

Soon after the incident came to light, autorickshaw drivers in Kasaragod town went off the road from 3.30 pm to 6 pm in protest.

Kasaragod District Police Chief Shilpa Dyavaiah said she transferred Sub-Inspector Anoop P to the Chandera Police Station and directed Additional Superintendent of Police Balakrishnan Nair P to initiate a preliminary inquiry against him.

Kasaragod MLA NA Nellikkunnu has written to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan asking for disciplinary action against the officer if found guilty in the inquiry.

Sathar is survived by his wife, Haseena Banu, and their three children, Sana Parveen, Sheik Shaneez, and Shamna Sheik. The family resides in Mangaluru. "We have no idea what happened. He always came home on Saturday nights and left on Monday mornings. But this weekend, he didn’t come," said his son, Sheik Shaneez, standing with his mother outside the mortuary at Kasaragod General Hospital.

Abdul Sathar's live video, accessible only to his friends on Facebook, gives some glimpse into his last days. "The police are torturing me. They keep telling me to come today, come tomorrow," said Sathar, a heart patient.

Last Thursday, October 3, Sathar was navigating the narrow Nellikkunnu Road when a Home Guard jumped in front of his autorickshaw and said he was on the wrong side. Sathar said he only followed three other vehicles in front of him. "But the Home Guard called SI Anoop. The officer came and pulled out the key from my autorickshaw," he said. "What can I do? It blocked the road."

When people behind started honking in protest, the officer took the autorickshaw to the Kasaragod Town Police Station, 4km away. "The SI said he pressed some charges against me and that I was arrested and would need two persons as surety to bail me out," Sathar said in the live video.

The auto driver said he did not know anyone in Kasaragod town and his family was in Mangaluru.

Every day, he left home after the morning prayers around 5 am and returned by noon to cook lunch for himself. After an afternoon nap, he hit the road again around 4.30 pm and worked till 10 pm. "But I don't earn enough to meet the needs of my family," he said.

His autorickshaw was bought by his friend, who works abroad, by paying a down payment of Rs 25,000. Sathar had to pay the EMI. "I defaulted last month. I paid the EMI in two instalments," he said.

When the police officer impounded the autorickshaw for five days, his debt and despair started mounting. "I went to the SP (District Police Chief's) Office. The receptionist read the complaint and asked me to go to the DySP," he said. "I went to the DySP. He did not see the complaint but said he would check the CCTV footage," Sathar said.

When other auto drivers saw the Facebook live, they called up the Station House Office of the Town Police Station. "The Inspector said he will take steps to release the auto. But by then, Sathar stopped attending his calls," said Moinudeen, an autorickshaw driver and leader of Swatantra Thozhilali Union (STU), the trade union of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).

Usually, when an autorickshaw is caught for a traffic violation, Kasaragod Police slap a fine of Rs 250 and let the driver go, he said. "No auto driver is fined more than Rs 250. It is because the police understand our struggle," he said. "This is the first time we faced such a bad experience from the police."

Mohammed Saleem, another auto driver who rushed to Sathar's house when he did not attend to his phone, said SI Anoop showed zero empathy for Sathar.

A senior DySP in Kasaragod district said Anoop is a new Sub-Inspector. "He said that the auto was not released because Sathar was not its owner. But the owner is in the Gulf. He could have released the vehicle on humanitarian grounds," said the DySP.

However, auto drivers pointed out that this was a collective failure of the police, allowing a new officer to hold an auto driver’s livelihood hostage without facing any consequences.

Last week, Kasaragod's poultry distributor Ibrahim BM said Hosdurg Police in Kanhangad seized Rs 7 lakh from him alleging it was unaccounted for money but recorded only Rs 4.68 lakh in the FIR.