Soldier, friend arrested for faking ‘PFI’ assault: Kerala Police

Quite disappointing

Soldier, friend arrested for faking ‘PFI’ assault: Kerala Police

An Army soldier, who had complained that he was assaulted by a group of six people who also wrote “PFI” on his back in green paint, was arrested on Tuesday along with a friend for allegedly giving a false statement, with the police saying their investigation found the man’s allegations to have been fabricated.

Police had registered a case on Monday on the basis of 35-year-old Shinekumar’s complaint that he was attacked. The matter had been reported at the Kadakkal police limits in Kerala’s Kollam district on Sunday night.

However, on Tuesday, police said their investigation found that Shinekumar, who was home on leave, had fabricated the false case to gain popularity. According to police, the soldier’s friend, identified as Joshi, confessed that they had made up the complaint.

Both Shinekumar and Joshi were taken into custody by Kadakkal police on Tuesday.

According to a PTI report, the police also recovered from Joshi’s home green paint, a brush and tape that were allegedly used to fabricate the incident.

According to Shinekumar’s initial complaint, he had been riding his motorcycle at Chanapara village under Kadakkal police limits when he was directed into a nearby rubber plantation by two people under the false pretence that an inebriated person was lying in the plantation and needed help. Shinekumar went on to claim that he was then attacked by a gang of six people in the plantation, during which they tore his shirt, wrote “PFI” on his back and tied his hands together with packaging tape.

PFI is likely a reference to the Popular Front of India, a group that was banned last year.

Express News Service – 2023-09-26 18:14

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