Eardrum damaged after assault: Kerala activist recounts Delhi Police violence

Fidal Royas, a Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) member from Kerala, said he was detained by the Delhi Police five times between October 2 and October 11. On each day, after they were released from detention, Fidal and his comrades would go back to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) head office in HKS Surjeet Bhavan, where they were staying, only to return the next day to the protest site. 

But on October 11, he was brutally assaulted, leading to a ‘traumatic perforation’ of his eardrum. 

A native of Kuttiyadi in Kozhikode district, Fidal was among 30-odd DYFI and Students Federation of India (SFI) activists from Kerala who travelled to Delhi on October 1, with the aim of participating in the protests demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the conduct of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

Speaking to TNM, he recounted the events of October 11. Left student and youth organisations took out a march from Rajiv Chowk Metro Station towards Janpath that afternoon. 

“That day, the demonstration was declared suddenly. We went to Rajiv Chowk between 12 noon and 12.30 pm to take part in it.”

Fidal said that he was at the rear end of the march when police started detaining protesters from the back.  

“I was among the first to be detained and taken into a police bus, the kind with cells. Then others were also detained in the bus, which started moving. Some of us started recording videos from within the bus. The police objected to this and started assaulting us,” he recollected. 

According to Fidal, one of the cops in the bus stepped out and told five or six others that he had recorded videos. “The cops then proceeded to assault me severely. They put me on the road and beat me with bare hands and kicked me with their boots as I lay on the road. They repeatedly assaulted me, even slapping me on my face till my body couldn’t take it anymore. One after the other, they kept beating me.”

“I was beaten continuously for at least five minutes,” Fidal continued, adding that his ear started hurting then. “I was in a lot of pain initially,” he said. 

The assault continued even after Fidal was put in a second bus, he alleged. “The cops kept assaulting the detainees in that bus also. When other detainees objected to it, each person who spoke was individually beaten up. I was beaten again in the cell for speaking up for fellow detainees.”

Fidal said the bus took them to a location several kilometres away from Rajiv Chowk. He, along with other detainees, was let go late in the night. “By then, others from the party had arrived there. Other protesters who were detained from Rajiv Chowk after me had also been brought to the same location on different buses,” he said.

Fidal was directly taken to the RML Hospital in New Delhi for treatment. “It must have been nearly 10 pm by then. I did not get an ENT consult there. They checked my other injuries, and x-rays and scans were done. By the time it was done, it was around 2 am in the morning.”

Fidal said he had hoped to stay back at the protest but was advised by senior leaders to return to Kerala for specialist treatment. “Even after I was injured, I did not want to return home. I wanted to stay back and participate in the protests. But Rahim ikka [Rajya Sabha MP AA Rahim, who is also the national president of DYFI] and other DYFI leaders insisted that I get treatment from here.”

After he reached Kerala, Fidal was taken to the Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode, where he consulted with an ENT specialist. He has been given antibiotics for two weeks now, after which the doctors will determine whether he requires surgery. 

“Initially there was a lot of pain in my ear. Now it feels like my ears are shut, and my hearing has been slightly affected. There’s an injury to my eardrum," he said.

The vice president of DYFI’s Kunnummal block, Fidal, said he has participated in several demonstrations in the past, including some of SFI’s Parliament marches. However, “this is the first time I am seeing such brutality,” he said.