Congress MLA from Aluva, Anwar Sadath, met Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan as well as the Director General of Police on Monday, November 29, urging them to take action against Aluva East Circle Inspector (CI) Sudhir, who was named by Mofiya, the 21-year-old who died by suicide on November 22. The third-year law student had been redirected to Sudhir when she complained of domestic violence against her husband Suhail and his family.

Sadath submitted a letter to the CM, where he said that the CI, who was suspended on November 26, should be terminated from service and that a case should be registered against him under section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code. “Individuals like CI Sudhir continuing in service is a hurdle for women in the society. If he is terminated from service, it will also serve as a lesson for other police officers so that this sort of bad behaviour does not continue,” the letter stated.

A few hours before Mofiya took her life, she and her family, and Suhail and his family had been called to the police station allegedly to broker a “compromise”. At the meeting, the police allege that the CI allegedly reprimanded Mofiya for slapping Suhail. However, Mofiya’s family has alleged that Sudhir behaved rudely with her and made her feel as though she was the perpetrator. Mofiya’s father Dilshad has alleged that Sudhir was rude to her and made her feel dejected. 

This is not the first time Sudhir has allegedly discouraged a woman from lodging a domestic violence complaint. After Mofiya’s case came to light, another woman said in an interview to Mathrubhumi that Sudhir had behaved with her in a ‘threatening’ manner too. This woman said that she had gone to the Aluva police station on the night of November 20 after her in-laws evicted her from her house, to complain about dowry harassment and domestic abuse. Saying that she felt scared of Sudhir, the woman has alleged, “He (Sudhir) did not want to protect me - a woman - and instead behaved rudely with me. He used a threatening voice. I sat there for 18 hours thinking he would take action,” she added. She said that an FIR was not registered in her case initially, despite waiting for hours. When an FIR was finally registered, she was allegedly refused a copy.

Earlier in June 2021, Kollam Rural police filed a report with the DGP in the murder of Uthra, a woman who was killed by her husband using a venomous snake. The report accused Sudhir of making lapses in gathering evidence. At the time, Sudhir was the Circle Inspector of the Anchal police station.