Jawans of 6 Guards at Army Brigade had done a Park Street at Nemom police station, near Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, 21 years ago, leaving several policemen injured and forcing the station house officer to run for his life.

According to deputy superintendent of the crime branch of Kerala police G. Somasekhar, the jawans had raided the police station, on the outskirts of the city, in June 1985 to free a havildar. Somasekhar was then a sub-inspector at the police station.

He said a joint inquiry and a court martial followed, but he couldn’t recollect if any jawan or officer was punished. There was a joint probe but there was no court martial, stated army officers.

Around 1 am, the jawans drove up to the police station in three trucks, blocked the road, beat up the cops, ransacked the police station and left with havildar Bopaiah.

The havildar had been arrested at the nearby army firing range for allegedly detaining excise officers on a hunt for bootleggers. Earlier in the day, Bopaiah had been warned by cops for harassing fisherwomen in the local market.

When the excise department visited the firing range, Bopaiah mistook them for cops from Nemom police station and took away their car keys, said Somasekhar. He and other cops arrested the havildar later. Bopaiah’s absence was noticed during the evening roll call.

The day after the siege, the jawans admitted themselves to the military hospital at Pangode, alleging they were assaulted by police.

Additional director-general of Kerala Police (intelligence) Jacob Punnose, who was on the joint inquiry team, said: “There was a court martial after our probe. It was found that the jawans had taken law into their hands and the officers had acted irresponsibly by giving them arms and vehicles.”

Brigadier B.T. Pandit, then head of the army establishment in the area, had walked out of a joint conference with cops over differences of opinion with the state police chief.

A retired colonel quoted Pandit as saying: “I’ve trained my boys. I’ve taught them how to free our men from enemy territory. If our men are in illegal confinement within our territory, shall we not get them free?”