Mangalore youth ‘tortured’ in illegal custody, hospitalised
by Sudipto Mondal
The Hindu
Mangalore, Jan 18: Nooruddin (22), a vegetable vendor from Kinnigoli, was hospitalised on Friday after he was allegedly “tortured” in the illegal custody of the District Crime Investigation Bureau (DCIB) here. He has sustained “internal injuries” and “kidney damage” and is unable to use his legs, as per the records of the Highland Hospital, where he has been admitted.
Nooruddin was allegedly picked up by the DCIB police on January 12 in connection with a murder in Kinnigoli. For the next four days, he was starved and tortured, according to a complaint filed by him with Inspector General of Police (Western Range) A.M. Prasad and Home Minister V.S. Acharya.
In the complaint, he has alleged that the investigating officers forced him to utter blasphemous statements against his religion. A heavy metal roller was run over his body and he was hung upside down and beaten. “The DCIB police station has stored articles such as heavy rollers, electric shock machines and material for third-degree torture. It is a horrifying place where human rights violations are the order of the day,” he has stated in his complaint.
The police had to release him when Prasad intervened in the matter, following a complaint filed by Abubakar, a relative of Mr. Nooruddin. In his complaint of January 14, Mr. Abubakar stated that despite being in police custody for more than 48 hours, Mr. Nooruddin was not produced in a court as per law. “I fear the DCIB police will finish him off in an attempt to appease certain Hindutva organisations that have influenced this action,” Mr. Abubakar said in the complaint.
Noorudddin told The Hindu on Saturday that he would have been dead by now if his relative had not filed a complaint with a senior officer. “On January 15, I was dragged out of the cell in which I was kept and bundled into a police van. I was driven to the State Bank bus-stop and thrown on the road in a semi-conscious condition,” he added.
Some passers-by took him to a local mosque. When his condition failed to improve, those in the mosque shifted him to hospital. His relatives were informed about his hospitalisation hours later when he regained consciousness, he said.
Case not registered
In his complaint to the IGP and Home Minister, Nooruddin has said that although the hospital authorities filed a medico-legal case and handed over a recorded statement to the investigating officer of the jurisdictional police station, the police have not registered a case. Nooruddin has named the DCIB inspector Venkatesh Prasanna and his subordinates Dinesh Bekal, Chetan, Kumar and Ashok in his complaint.
Prasad said that he would initiate a departmental enquiry into the matter.