Mr. Pandian

Advocate

Tamil Nadu

HRDA has issued an urgent appeal to the National Human Rights Commission of India on November 1 regarding the harassment and ill-treatment of Mr. Pandian by police personnel at Villuppuram, Tamil Nadu. Mr. Pandian is an advocate and human rights activist. He is the Executive Director of the Social Awareness Society for Youths (SASY) which is a registered voluntary organisation committed to advance human rights. It is based in Tindivanam, Tamil Nadu. 

On 31.10.2017,  Mr. Pandian was returning from Coimbatore along with Sr. Alphonse and Mr. Devanayagam by car and reached Thiyagathurukam at around 3.15 am. Mr. Devanayagam resides in Thiyagathurukam village and hence they reached the bus stand in Thiyagathurukam. They were waiting in the bus stand so that his son could pick him up.

While they were waiting near the bus stand, one sub-inspector and constable came by bike and the constable who was sitting in the bike shouted at Mr. Pandian disrespectfully. (Their names could not be identified as they were wearing raincoats.) When he went to them, they asked, ”Why are you standing here and where are you are coming from?”  He replied that he came here to drop Mr. Devanagaygam and that he resides in Tindivanam.

The sub-inspector asked Mr. Pandian to show his identity card and he gave his advocate’s ID card for verification. They saw that his residential address was in Madurai and the sub-inspector raised his tone aggressively and asked him as to what is he doing in Tindivanam. Mr. Pandian explained that Madurai is his home town but he is working in Tindivanam and his office is also in Tindivanam.

The police personnel used filthy and abusive language and addressed him using “vada, poda” even after they verified his ID card. They said, “Advocate Enna Pudungiya.” Mr. Pandian asked them to stop calling him “vada, poda… I am alling you sir but you are repeatedly calling me vada, poda.”

They also arrogantly told him that he can give a complaint against them to senior officers. The sub-inspector said, “This is my jurisdiction and here I am the officer and I won’t listen to anyone. You can go anywhere and lodge a complain. They cannot even touch me and I can face it.”

Meanwhile, the sub-inspector asked his constable to check whether Mr. Pandian was drunk. In reply he said, “Sir, you are harassing me without any reason.“ The police personnel abused him by using filthy language.