Kerala: How a Soldier's Lie About a PFI Attack Unravelled

Around 1:30 am on September 25, the Kadakkal police in Kollam district received a call from a YouTuber. The man said he had received a call from an Indian Army soldier, who said he had been attacked by a group of unknown miscreants who wrote the letters ‘PFI’ on his back. A few minutes later, the station received another call, this time from a leading news channel. The channel wanted to check if a case had been filed. The journalist informed the police that the soldier was at the Kadakkal Government Hospital. Immediately, a team led by circle inspector Rajesh P.S. went to the hospital. What unravelled in the next few hours has dominated the headlines in Kerala.

The police personnel TNM spoke to said they were alarmed at the allegation as the Popular Front of India (PFI) was banned a year ago, and PFI attacking an Indian soldier could foment trouble. They found the soldier, 35-year-old Shine Kumar, in the outpatient section of the hospital, all set to give his statement. But the police were suspicious since the moment they got the call to the station.

“Usually, we are informed by the victims, their relatives, civilians or the hospital staff. But we got it through a media house and a YouTuber, which made us suspicious,” said the inspector, speaking to TNM.

This suspicion increased after they saw Shine at the hospital. He did not have visible scratches on his body, his shirt was cut in a straight line and he was otherwise untouched. They took his statement and registered a case against six identifiable yet unknown persons for assaulting the soldier. But within hours, it unravelled that Shine had lied in a bid to become famous.

The lie

In his statement to the police, Shine claimed he was attacked at a rubber estate. He told the police that he worked with the Indian Army’s Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME) Corps, stationed in Rajasthan and was in Kadakkal on vacation, due to finish on September 25. On the night of September 24, he claimed, he had organised a small gathering at his house. After dinner, he took his bike to meet his friend Joshy to give him Rs 1,000 in cash. Joshy, according to Shine, had transferred the money using Google Pay and wanted Shine to withdraw it and hand it over to him. When Shine reached the Mukkada Government School, six people stopped him and told him an inebriated man needed help.

Shine claimed that he accompanied the men to a rubber estate on the Mukkada Chanappara road, and upon reaching, one of the men kicked him from behind. Four other persons allegedly assaulted him, lifted him off the ground, tied his hands and closed his mouth with tape. Shine Kumar claimed they forced him face down on the ground and then lifted him up again. The men then tore his T-shirt in the back and wrote ‘PFI’ using green paint that they carried with them, and left him there, he said. He then managed to reach the hospital. Based on his complaint, Kadakkal police registered a first information report (FIR).

Catching the bluff

“What struck the police was that he had no injuries on his body, not even a scratch, no stains or signs of being attacked on his body and T-shirt. Mukkada is a central place and even if it had happened, someone – residents or passersby – must have noticed such a large group of people or heard the commotion,” said Kollam Police Chief Sunil ML. The police found discrepancies in Shine’s version of events, especially regarding his statement about handing over cash to his friend Joshy.

Shine’s Google Pay details revealed that he had not received money from Joshy. Mobile tower signals told the police that Joshy was actually at Shine’s house for dinner that night. “There was a party organised that night to celebrate the first birthday of Shine’s child and for Onam on 28, which is celebrated in parts of Kerala. We found that they were together that night,” Inspector Rajesh said.

Once Joshy was questioned, he gave a different version. He told the police he was drunk and went to Mukkada as Shine had called him. Joshy did not reveal if they had dinner together. According to the police, Joshy confessed that he wrote ‘PFI’ on Shine’s back.

Joshy admitted to the police that it was Shine who asked him to paint on his back. Shine, according to his friend, wanted to become famous. “He asked me to write ‘PFI’ on his back. But I heard ‘DFI’ and wrote the same. When I told him I wrote ‘DFI’ he asked me to change it to ‘PFI’. Then, he gave me a blade and asked me to cut the shirt. He also asked me to beat him, but I said I was too drunk and could not do it. He then asked me to drag him on the ground, but I couldn’t do it. Then, he asked me to tie his hands with tape, and he himself stuck a tape on his mouth. He then asked me to leave,” Joshy the police.

The Kadakkal police recovered the paint, brush, blade and tape from Joshy’s house.

Sunil told TNM they were sceptical about Shine’s story as the people associated with PFI in the area are few. “We are investigating the case, and questioning two to three people. Currently, Shine and Joshy have been arrested and remanded,” he said.

Kadakkal police said that the accused have been booked under 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 177 (furnishing false information), 120B (punishment of criminal conspiracy), 465 (punishment for forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 37 (co-operation by doing one of several acts constituting an offence) of the IPC and 117(d) (false statement to a police officer) of the Kerala Police (KP) Act.

In June this year, another soldier Prabhakaran, in a viral video, made a false but more serious claim that his wife was “molested and stripped” by a 120-strong mob in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvannamalai district. Later, a leaked audio of a conversation purportedly between Prabhakaran and a person named Vinodh had cast doubts on the authenticity of the soldier’s claims. TNM visited Palavedu, the village in which Prabhakaran had claimed the incident took place, and found that the accusations were false. They were allegedly made to cover up a dispute related to vacating a shop in which the soldier’s family members were involved.

This article was originally published on The News Minute.