News Desk
MALE’ — On a night in August 2021, a man was brought into Maafannu Police Station and placed in a chair near the reception area. What happened in the four minutes that followed was caught on CCTV cameras. A police officer dragged him out of frame. Another officer filled a container with water and walked toward the same area three times. When the detainee reappeared on camera four minutes later, he was soaking wet. The skin on his neck was red and burned.
The Civil Court ruled on Thursday that the police officer responsible was correctly dismissed from the service. Judge Ahmed Abdul Mateen found that both the substantive grounds and the procedural steps taken in the dismissal were sound. The officer’s attempt to challenge his termination through judicial review failed.
The sergeant at the centre of the case had maintained throughout that he had seen nothing, despite being present at the station at the time. The CCTV footage made that claim impossible to sustain. The camera angles showed clearly that the officer was in a position to witness what happened, and that his account was an attempt to conceal it.
The officer had gone to court hoping to recover lost salary and benefits, arguing his dismissal was unlawful. He pointed to procedural grounds. The court found none that would justify overturning the decision.
“This is not a ruling made contrary to the law,” the judgment stated.
The case is notable for what the footage captured and for what it demonstrated about accountability. Abuse carried out inside a locked room, away from public view, has historically been difficult to prosecute in any jurisdiction. In this instance, the CCTV record was precise enough that denial became untenable. The officer could not argue he was absent. He could not argue the incident did not occur. He could only argue procedure, and that argument failed.
The Civil Court’s ruling does not address any criminal liability that may or may not have followed from the incident. It addresses only whether the dismissal itself was lawful. On that question, the court was unambiguous.
The four minutes recorded at Maafannu Police Station in 2021 showed a detainee burned with hot water and an officer who chose to look away and then lie about it. Thursday’s ruling confirmed that a uniform is not a shield, and that in this case at least, the institution moved to remove the person who treated it as one.
