A group of women engineers from the Kerala Road Fund Board (KRFB) has raised serious concerns over alleged police inaction following a violent roadside attack while they were on official night duty in Kollam district. The incident occurred around 10 p.m. on Saturday on the Sasthamcotta–Anjilimoodu main road, where the seven-member all-women team was supervising tarring work under a KIIFB project.
According to the engineers’ complaint, a jeep bypassed the established traffic control set-up and entered the work zone. One of the youths in the vehicle reportedly grabbed the assistant executive engineer and lifted her off the ground when she attempted to record the disturbance on her mobile phone, leading to panic among the officials. The phone was allegedly snatched during the scuffle.
The team called for police help, and officers from Sasthamcotta police station did arrive at the site, but, the engineers say, the response was inadequate. The police are accused of asking the women to go to the station and submit a written complaint rather than taking immediate action at the scene. Despite some of the accused reportedly being present at the station when the engineers arrived, there was no immediate registration of a case or a site revisit by the police that night, according to the complaint.
After submitting the written complaint late at night, the women returned to the worksite and completed the tarring operations only by morning hours. They have since approached higher police officials, including the rural police chief, and senior Public Works Department authorities, urging a thorough probe and better support. The engineers allege that phone calls to police following the initial incident were met with suggestions to settle the matter through talks with the accused, which they rejected.
The Sasthamcotta police have declined to comment publicly on the specifics of the allegations. The case has sparked wider concerns about on-duty safety for women professionals and the responsiveness of law enforcement during emergencies.
News as reported
