Thiruvananthapuram: In another instance of moral policing by Kerala police, a renowned female theatre artist and her male co-artist were detained for over eight hours at Kollam east station on Friday.
Actress Hima Shankar had left Kollam for the state capital on a bike with her friend Sreeram Ramesh on Friday midnight to join a theatre camp here.
According to Mr Ramesh, a police patrol party intercepted them within Kollam city limits at first, scanned their vehicle documents and allowed them to leave. Minutes later, a second party stopped them at Chinnakada by 12.30 a.m.“Even after revealing our identity and producing the documents, the police decided to take us into custody. They spoke rudely and questioned why a girl has to travel with a boy at that time. Though my parents came, we were let off only by 9 a.m. on Friday after the station house officer came,” he said.
His father reached the station around 5 a.m. and told the cops that the duo had left home after having dinner with the family.
“As an individual I am not really upset by the incident but this can happen to any ordinary woman and needs to be dealt with,” said Ms Shankar and added that she had filed complaints with the state police chief, human rights commission and women’s commission.
