New Delhi: An army jawan and his friend were arrested Tuesday in Kerala’s Kollam district for allegedly staging an attack in which he claimed unknown miscreants tied up his hands and wrote ‘PFI’ on his back with green paint.
Shine Kumar, the jawan, had told the Kollam Rural Police that six people assaulted him in Kadakkal on Sunday and wrote ‘PFI’ on his back. PFI is a common abbreviation of the banned outfit Popular Front of India.
The jawan had claimed that he was gagged with tape and his hands tied before being thrashed by the group of six men.
Earlier in the day, Additional SP, Kollam Rural, R. Prathapan Nair told the media that the jawan was looking for “national attention” for a “suitable posting” from the army and wanted to use this incident for that purpose.
In the investigation conducted so far, the police found that neither six people were involved in that alleged attack nor any PFI member living in the locality where this alleged assault took place, Nair told ThePrint.
Kumar had conspired with his friend to get fame, he said.
At the friend’s residence, police seized the mastic tape and a brush which could have been used for writing on the back.
“There were no PFI people in that locality. No six people were there. It’s a completely fabricated complaint made to mislead police and media,” Nair said.
Both Kumar and his friend have been making various statements regarding the reason behind them staging this assault, the senior police officer told ThePrint.
Kumar and his friend were arrested under Section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups ) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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