KOZHIKODE: After eight months and 20 days under illegal detention in Male, writer Jayachandran Mokeri returned home on Friday.
Emotional scenes were witnessed when he met his wife Jyothi and daughter Karthika on the Press Club premises here on Friday evening after he reached Kozhikode from Bangalore by road before proceeding to his native village Mokeri near Vadakara.
“I still cannot believe this. I was devastated and thought I will never come out of the prison. I do not know who all worked for my release.
But seeing all of you here, I now know many kind-hearted people still live in this world,” Jayachandran told mediapersons at a meet the press programme here.
While narrating his devastating experience in Male, he broke down several times. His bearded face could not hide the rush of emotions as he spoke about how he was ill-treated, mocked at and even warned inside the 20/10-foot prison cell.
“The condition in Male schools is beyond what we can comprehend. I was asked to teach students in 4th, 5th and 6th classes.
It is difficult to control the students in these classes and if I do not control them, I would be accused of not implementing discipline. If I try to control them, it would be raised as another complaint.
What led to my imprisonment was that I made one boy sit on the floor when he became too unruly in the class,” Jayachandran said describing the incidents that led to his arrest and imprisonment.
He was first put in solitary confinement even before they took his version and later in a prison cell in Malay where he had to share a small cell with 10 other criminals.
“On many days, I could not even go to the toilet as there was no water. I was devastated. I lost my memory in the initial days as I struggled to remember the faces of my dear ones,” he said.
He broke down when he recalled that he came to know about the death of his brother only now. “It happened in June. I am emotionally down. I had no contact with my dear ones and I didn’t know what really happened here,” he said.
