Prasannan Ponganamparambile, a doctor with the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at Latrobe Regional Hospital, Victoria, Australia, was attending a party at home on May 16, 2020, when a friend called his wife, Nisha.
She was told that a screenshot of the local police’s Facebook page, ‘Eyewatch-Cardinina Police Service Area’, was being circulated on WhatsApp, and wondered if the man in the picture was Dr. Prasannan. The post read ‘ID REQUIRED —THEFT IN PAKENHAM’ and Dr. Prasannan was seen in a striped shirt holding a bottle. “The identity of the male picture is wanted in relation to a theft that occurred in Pakenham,” it said. The picture had been taken when Dr. Prasannan, who hails from Thrissur, went to the local bottle shop to buy liquor a month ago.
When he contacted the Pakenham Police Station the next day, he was told to be present there on May 17. Though he reached there on the said date, and informed the police personnel that he was innocent, they reportedly behaved “arrogantly”. He was allowed to meet the police officer concerned only on May 24. When he went to the station that day, along with his wife, daughter, and a lawyer, the police said they were “taking him into custody for questioning”. Dr. Prasannan claims he was locked in the back of a caged police vehicle and forced to sit on its floor. He remained there for five minutes, was stripped of his wrist watch and ID card, and had his fingerprints and photographs taken before being allowed to leave, according to the local media.
