Twenty-year-old Judith Yaa Kumah, whose ear was partly chopped off allegedly during an interrogation by a policeman at the Tema Community 8 station, has petitioned the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to demand thorough investigations and justice.
According to her lawyer, Andrew Khartey, it was unlawful to chop off the ears of a person because they looked like a member of a robbery gang a CCTV footage has captured.
Speaking to Joy News on March 28, he said the lady was a few months pregnant at the time of the incident, making it even more wrong to subject her to such a treatment.
“And in the course of interrogations, a police officer by the name Clement Suputour, chops off the right part of her ear with a pair of metallic pliers, only because, according to him, she is connected to a certain person of police interest and also that she looked like somebody who had been captured in a CCTV footage of a robbery incident on Tema, a few weeks earlier.
“Now, you wouldn’t believe it. This young lady at the time was a few weeks pregnant, a fact which the police knew of because they had conducted a pregnancy test and had the results.
“Now, it had to take me so much effort for the police to release the medical records of her to enable us to apply to the court for the variation of her bail conditions,” he said.
Meanwhile, the victim, in an earlier interview with Crime Check TV, said that on February 29, she was arrested when she visited her boyfriend, who was locked behind bars at a police station.
She said when she came to the police station, she was asked to sit at the visitors’ side for about 30 minutes.
Later, the police asked her to join her boyfriend who was locked up. Upon entering the cell, she asked her boyfriend why she was asked to join him, but he reassured her that everything would be fine.
A few minutes later, she said CID Suputour handcuffed her and drove her to Tema Community 8 Police Station.
Judith said that upon arrival, she was sent to a CID office where a policewoman, her daughter, and a labourer were present.
In the office, she was interrogated, during which process she was asked who one “Survivor” was.
She explained that she didn’t know who “Survivor” was, but the police insisted that Survivor was a friend of her boyfriend.
She further stated that whenever her boyfriend had friends over, there was no formal introduction, and they [her boyfriend and his friends] often communicated in Hausa, a language she did not speak, so she always excused herself.
The 20-year-old stated that the policeman now handcuffed her hands behind her back and kicked her, as a result of which she fell off the plastic chair to the ground.
Later, she said he picked up a perforator and held it to her earring at the upper part of her right ear, demanding to know who Survivor was and where he lived.
She said, “I don’t know Survivor until today; I don’t know someone who goes by that name.”
The lady recounted that CID Suputour began pressing the perforator against her ear, dragging it until a portion of her ear nipped off.
The police woman who was seated then asked CID Suputour to exercise patience, stating that there was a better way to handle matters. However, the policeman told her to leave the office if she was uncomfortable with it.
Judith said the policewoman picked up her child and left the scene, leaving her with CID Suputour and the labourer.
The policewoman then reported the incident to the Commander of the station. When the Commander came in, she said that upon seeing blood oozing out, the Commander asked who did this to her and instructed the CID to follow him to his office.
A few minutes later, when the CID returned, he picked up the ear and asked her to follow him to the hospital, where she received medical attention.
After dressing the wound, they returned to the police station. Later that night, she said the CID accused her of involvement in a robbery incident on January 30.
Judith added that she told him she was nowhere near Tema on January 30 and that she had proof on her phone that she was not in the area.
Subsequently, she said the CID presented her with a statement and insisted that she thumbprint it. Judith said when she refused to thumbprint it, he threatened to cut off her other ear, so she complied.
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