By Gokul Vannan
Published on January 01,2010:
CHENNAI: Debunking the police version that woman sub-inspector Jeyachitra used the much acclaimed crime-buster ‘pepper- spray’ to get him hogtied right and proper when he attempted escape, Sri Lankan Tamil refugee J David Kennedy has told his lawyers that he was in police custody at the Neelangarai police station from December 24 and was the victim of the police zealousness enacted at Thoraipakkam on December 27.
Kennedy said his eyes were hurting even three days after the drama was enacted. Advocates Vasudevan and Premkumar, who met 18-year-old Kennedy at the Saidapet sub-jail on Wednesday, told Express that the police story that Kennedy jumped custody en route to Thoraipakkam from Kannagi Nagar was a concoction.
Kennedy told the lawyers that four police personnel, including a woman sub-inspector, took him to a deserted spot in Thoraipakkam, forced him to the ground, and smeared mud all over his body. Then, without warning, the woman cop sprayed something in his eyes, making him shout in pain.
He said two hours later, when he could open his eyes, he found he was at the Thoraipakkam police station. He was administered Ciplox ‘eye drops’ but by then he had developed a bad cough and pain in his chest. Whenever he coughed he could smell pepper on his breath, he said.
Recalling the events, Kennedy said some unidentified persons took him to the Neelankarai police station on December 24 when he was found roaming in the area. At the police station he confessed to having snatched three chains and subsequently helped the police recover them from Arcot.
A man, Dayalan, had gotten him a job at a construction site in Neelangarai. But he left the workplace and took to chain snatching. Earlier, he had been living with his family at the Usur refugee camp in Tiruvanamallai helping his painter father Joseph.
Published on January 01,2010:
CHENNAI: Debunking the police version that woman sub-inspector Jeyachitra used the much acclaimed crime-buster ‘pepper- spray’ to get him hogtied right and proper when he attempted escape, Sri Lankan Tamil refugee J David Kennedy has told his lawyers that he was in police custody at the Neelangarai police station from December 24 and was the victim of the police zealousness enacted at Thoraipakkam on December 27.
Kennedy said his eyes were hurting even three days after the drama was enacted. Advocates Vasudevan and Premkumar, who met 18-year-old Kennedy at the Saidapet sub-jail on Wednesday, told Express that the police story that Kennedy jumped custody en route to Thoraipakkam from Kannagi Nagar was a concoction.
Kennedy told the lawyers that four police personnel, including a woman sub-inspector, took him to a deserted spot in Thoraipakkam, forced him to the ground, and smeared mud all over his body. Then, without warning, the woman cop sprayed something in his eyes, making him shout in pain.
He said two hours later, when he could open his eyes, he found he was at the Thoraipakkam police station. He was administered Ciplox ‘eye drops’ but by then he had developed a bad cough and pain in his chest. Whenever he coughed he could smell pepper on his breath, he said.
Recalling the events, Kennedy said some unidentified persons took him to the Neelankarai police station on December 24 when he was found roaming in the area. At the police station he confessed to having snatched three chains and subsequently helped the police recover them from Arcot.
A man, Dayalan, had gotten him a job at a construction site in Neelangarai. But he left the workplace and took to chain snatching. Earlier, he had been living with his family at the Usur refugee camp in Tiruvanamallai helping his painter father Joseph.
Related Story appeared on Dec 29:
Cops blind to dangers of spray of pepper in eye
CHENNAI: The unabashed manner in which a section of Chennai Police is promoting pepperspray as a self-defence tool has raised the hackles of human rights activists, lawyers, opthamologists and some senior police officers, too, who feel that the dark side of good old pepper has not been highlighted.
A senior police officer, referring to K N Murali, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Thoraipakkam) going gung ho over the product, manufactured by a private company, told Express: He is making a mockery of (the) police force.’ We are trained in police academies to protect the public and not double up as marketing managers of private companies’.
On the police claim that chain-snatcher J David Kennedy was arrested by Thoraipakkam police with a blast of ‘pepper spray’ to his face, human right activist and lawyer V Kannadasan said the police version sounded like a movie script.
Needless to say, the police have not looked into the damage it can cause to the eye. Dr Mohan Rajan, Chairman and medical director of Rajan Eye Care Hospital, said pepper spray in the eyes could cause blindness.
Like chemical injury caused by acids and alkali substances, the pepper would damage the cornea.
M Tirunavukkarasu, a psychiatrist, said it was impossible for a potential victim of chain snatching to use the pepper spray as protection as the snatcher, mostly on a two-wheeler, zooms off in seconds.
A senior police officer said that it was the duty of the police to identify crimeprone areas and formulate strategies by studying the modus operandi of criminals.
Another officer said that in the USA, pepper spray was promoted as a self-defence mechanism against sexual harassment and house breaking as many women there live alone.
Human rights activist and lawyer Sudha Ramalingam wondered if the police had the right to ‘license’ such a product.
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