Parliament committee on human rights and gender has taken on investigations of the case where officers of the Drug Enforcement Department assaulted residents of a house, during a court-ordered search operation.

Deliberations have been scheduled at the committee meeting for 5pm on Sunday.

Committee member Imthiyaz Fahmy stated that the committee began investigations into the case on its own accord.

The committee had previously summoned Commissioner of Prisons Abdulla Munaz for questioning over a brawl between inmates and officers of the Maldives Correctional Service (MCS). A similar case where officers used excessive force to get inmates back inside their cells as they had failed to abide by orders.

A video is circulating on social media of officers assaulting residents of a house, during a search carried out under a court order. They were seen kicking the resident around.

After the video was publicized, the officers went to the house next door to threaten the residents, who the officers believe to have recorded the incident.

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)’s secretary general Anas Abdul Sattar Anas, who lives in the house, said that the officers had entered after claiming that it was part of a police operation and had gone floor by floor checking the residents’ phones to delete the video.