Mangalore: Two Police Assault Cases Reported - Tempo Association Plans Protest
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (TU/SP)
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Mangalore, Feb 12: Two separate incidents of police assault on men and a 15-year-old boy Adbul Rahman were reported in the city on Wednesday February 11.
Praveen Ashok Pinto, a resident of Iddya near Suratkal and Adbul Rahman, a resident of Ulaibettu in the outskirts of the city have filed separate cases of assault by the policemen on them, in Kankanady rural police station and Pandeshwar police station respectively.
Praveen, a tempo driver, alleged that he was assaulted in full public glare by a certain police personnel attached to the Suratkal police station.
Explaining the incident to Daijiworld, he said that the policeman had demanded a bribe of Rs 15,000 from him, for releasing his vehicle that had met with an accident on February 3. He had been to the police station after securing bail through the court for claiming his vehicle on February 10, he claimed.
“The policemen abused me using invectives, for consulting an advocate to getting bail and order of release for my vehicle. They refused to release the vehicle and as such, I was returning to my house as per the directions of the advocate. Meanwhile, the policemen forcibly dragged me back into the station after kicking my back and hitting on the neck in public. They kept me illegally in the station for a few hours, duly snatching away my cell phone by force,” he explained.
He was hospitalized in a private hospital on February 10. According to him, a police official approached him there and apologized for the incident on behalf of accused, after a police complaint against the assaulters was filed in the station.
Plan to lay siege to station
Gangadhar, president of Tempo Drivers and Owners Association said that they would stage a protest against the illegal assault on one of their members and disclosed of their plan to lay siege to the police station, if no action is taken against the guilty by February 12. The Association also submitted a complaint to the district deputy commissioner, superintendent of police, deputy superintendent of police and the district-in-charge minister.
'Police threatened to encounter us'
In another incident, Abdul Rahman, a daily wager alleged, that Kankanady police personnel barged into his house at 12.30 am on February 9, took him and his 15-year old son Hussain Ashfaq to the station and beat them up, asking them questions relating to an accused who is absconding in connection with an assault case filed two months back.
“I am a daily-wager. I have not been involved with any assault cases. The policemen tortured me in the station, asking questions about my co-brother Khalid, who has been absconding in connection with a case of assault filed against him in Mangalore rural police station. They asked me to appear before them in the station whenever they demanded. Let them feed poison to my entire family instead of torturing us,” he said inconsolably, expressing pain and grief.
He said that the police personnel also threatened him of fixing a case against him if he made the incident public. Speaking to Daijiworld, Ashfaq, class nine student, informed that police threatened him to kill him through a fake encounter along with his father, if they do not reveal the whereabouts of Khalid. “They showed me pistol and beat up with lathi,” he said.
When contacted, sub-inspector Prakash K said that Abdul Rahman was absconding since the last two months and that he was one of the accused in the case. He clarified that he also has received intimation about the police assault complaint filed against himself and others in Pandeshwar police station in the city.
Abdul Rahman also filed a complaint with the inspector general of police, informing him that the police had illegally arrested himself along with his son and threatened to end their life. Copies of the complaint have also been sent to the home minister, apart from the State and National Human Rights Commission, it is learnt.
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