Patna: His parents look worried, but the six – year – old is not. Rather he looks normal and fearless. He reiterated that he will continue to join protests in future. “Ye humare bhavishya ki baat hai (It is a matter of my future),” he says sitting beside his mother. Aditya Kumar was detained by Patna’s Kotwali police on 25th August when he was protesting with teacher aspirants at Dakbangla Chowk, in the heart of the capital.He was kept in the police station for at least six hours along with his parents. Aditya Kumar’s father Ranjit Kumar in Patna. Photo: Umesh Kumar Ray.But, his parents Ranjit Kumar, 30, and Munni Kumari, 28, told The Wire that police not only kept them for hours in the police station, they ensued violence on Ranjit and his wife. Police allegedly kicked and lathicharged them in the police station.The couple recalled the atrocities of police at the police station and said that they felt as if they were criminals. But police claimed that the child was rescued and not detained. On 26th August Patna police in a press release said that the social media posts claiming detention of the child was misleading. The press release says, “Despite repeated attempts to reason with them, the protesters began moving towards the restricted area and tried to break through/ remove the barricades. Amidst this, the police spotted a child at the site and made efforts to keep him safe from the crowd and a potential stampede. The child was subsequently handed over to their family members safe and sound.” The protestRecently, Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) which conducts teachers examination, has announced a slew of changes in pattern for upcoming teacher recruitment examinations, known as TRE – 4. According to the new pattern, the examination will be held in two stages and negative marking will continue in objective examinations. Teacher aspirants who have been preparing for this examination demanded that TRE-4 be conducted as a single examination without negative marking. To press their demand, they called for a march to Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary’s residence on 25th August. On 25th August aspirants started the march from Gandhi Maidan. They broke the police barricades on the way and reached Dak Bungalow Chowk at noon. Aditya Kumar joined the march at Dak Bangla Chowk. His mother Munni Kumari says, “He told us he is going to join the march as injustice is being done with students. Children these days are taking harsh steps for small things so we didn’t force him and we joined him.” They took an autorickshaw and reached Dak Bangla Chowk. There, Aditya joined the protest and his parents kept close eyes on him.When police first took Aditya, media persons covering the protest forced the police to leave him. Then someone gave Aditya a tricolour and he started waving it. Police had kept a bus to detain protesters. Some protesters climbed on the top of the bus. Aditya too followed the suit and started waving tricolour. It is when police again came in, but failed to catch him. Ranjit says, “In between I took aditya and started moving to my home, but suddenly police appeared before me and told me that my wife is waiting for me. I and Aditya followed the police.” At around 1 pm police put all the three in an ambulance.Police told them that they will be dropped at their home. “We were reassured that we were being taken home, but instead, we were taken to the Kotwali police station.” The police station is barely 500 metres away from Dak Bangla Chowk.“They treated us like criminals”Ranjit Kumar, who belongs to Other Backward Classes (OBC) category, says, “Police took me and my wife to a tiny room. There were at least six police personnel including four women police.”He recalls, “Male police officers were instructing female officers on how to beat my wife. The female officer stepped onto my wife’s legs. They struck the soles of my feet with a baton. First, they made me stand up. They struck my back with a knee, threw me to the ground, and then hit the soles of my feet five or six times with the baton before striking my hands. They struck me below the waist with a knee.”“They beat us for 15 minutes. “They treated us as if we were hardened criminals,” he told The Wire.The police have dismissed the allegations made by the family members. When Ajay Kumar, the SHO of the Kotwali police station, was asked about the family’s claim that Aditya had been assaulted at the station, he told The Wire, “This is all incorrect; no assault took place at the station.” When asked about the injury marks on the woman’s body, the SHO maintained that the injury must have been sustained during the protest itself, insisting that no assault occurred at the police station.However, the police didn’t misbehave with Aditya. Instead he was offered biscuits and chocolates but he refused to have it and kept asking to meet his parents. Ranjit says, “We were afraid in the police station but Aditya was not. He kept asking why he couldn’t be kept with his parents in the police station and also asked the police why we were beaten when he saw the injuries.”Ranjit has studied till 4th standard only. He works as a wage labourer earning Rs.500 daily. His wife works as domestic help in a few houses. They live in a single rented room. Aditya, the only child of the couple, studies in class one in a private school. He likes Maths, Hindi and English and also keeps a copy of the constitution. Ranjit says that Aditya is always interested in participating in protests. He had earlier joined a match organised by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Patna on 19th August. What triggered the police to detain Aditya? On this question Ranjit says, “Actually, during the protest police had lathicharged and a few aspirants sustained head injuries. Aditya asked in front of the media that police should tell who gave order to lathicharge on protestors. When a police officer was leaving the protest site, he asked where he was going after committing the crime.” “When police took us to the police station they asked us why our child needed to say who sustained head injuries and who carried out the lathi-charge,” Ranjit added. “Begged police to leave wife”Aditya was born via C-Section. Munni Kumari alleged, “Despite that, the police kicked me in my abdomen. It hurt heavily.”Ranjit told The Wire, “I begged the police to leave my wife but they didn’t listen.”Aditya Kumar’s parents Ranjit Kumar and Munni Kumari. Photo: Umesh Kumar Ray.Munni Kumari fell ill in the police station and complained of anxiety. Ranjit informed the police who brought a bottle of water. “I poured water on her head,” Ranjit says.Then police took her to New Gardiner Road Hospital, a government facility, about 500 metres away from Kotwali police station at around 4pm. “When police took me to hospital, they advised me not to tell the doctor that I was beaten in the police station,” Munni Kumari told The Wire. Also read: A Month Later, Victims of Police Firing During Siwan Youth Protests Are Still StrugglingTwo women police personnel accompanied her to hospital, she says. In hospital, the doctors asked Munni how she got hurt, but she said, “I felt intimidated due to the presence of police personnel, so I didn’t say anything.”She was administered an injection in the hospital and was advised to buy medicine privately. The hospital gave a prescription which mentioned about the injuries but the police took it. “When I asked about the prescription, the police told me that they would give it to my husband, but the police didn’t give it to us,” she told The Wire, showing bruises on her left cheek and right hand.Responding to the allegation that the police had kept the doctor’s prescription, the SHO said, “Why would the police keep it. Prescription remains with the patient undergoing treatment. So it must be with them only. We have not kept it.”After treatment the police again took her to the police station. They were finally let go at around 8pm.They reached home at around 9pm. They didn’t eat or sleep that night in fear. “We kept thinking all night that what was our mistake? Perhaps, we were treated like this, because we are poor,” says Munni. “We were made to sign on a written paper that if the child ever participated in a protest, strict action would be taken; it also stated that the police could summon us for questioning at any time. I don’t know what else was written in it,” Ranjit says.“Police also told us that we should not tell anything about what happened in the police station,” he told The Wire. Advocate Shivnandan Bharti who is planning to file a writ petition against police says, “It is a clear case of illegal detention. If the police detain someone illegally, a case under Section 341 is made out; the prescribed penalty for this is imprisonment for three years.” He asks: If the intention was to keep the child safe, as police are claiming now, then they should have handed him over to his guardian. Why was he kept at the police station for hours?Meanwhile, the incident has turned the life of the family upside down. They are not staying at home due to the fear of police harassment. Ranjit says, “I have stopped going to work for three days. I fear that the police may arrest us, beat us.”Umesh Kumar Ray is an independent journalist.