Hyderabad: The National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC) on Thursday, June 5, took suo-moto cognisance of the case involving Telangana police allegedly brutalising an auto driver on May 13.
The NHRC has asked the Telangana Director General of Police (DGP) to present a detailed report based on the allegations within two weeks.
The notice is in connection with the death of 35-year-old Mohammed Irfan, a resident of Gandipet. He had visited the Rajendranagar police station around 7:30 in the evening, accompanied by his wife Nahida’s family. The visit was related to a case filed against him over marital issues.
After initially counselling the couple, the police took Irfan into a room and thrashed him with rubber belts. Irfan’s brother Sadiq alleged that they could hear him screaming from the station, but a constable turned them away.
Irfan came out of the station an hour later, vomiting on the stairs before collapsing on the ground. “A policeman came and told us nothing had happened to him and Irfan was alright. Not believing him, we took him to a private hospital, from where he was shifted to Osmania Hospital, where the doctors told us that he had passed away,” said Sadiq.
Irfan’s family held the Rajendranagar police responsible for his death.
“Do the police have any right to beat a person, that too in a matrimonial dispute? We demand action against the policemen who beat my brother. There are surveillance cameras inside the police station, and the Cyberabad commissioner should conduct an inquiry and take action against the policemen who are responsible,” the family members demanded.
The police had instead booked a case under 194 (suspicious death) of the BNSS Act and took a complaint from the wife of Irfan, stating that the man was maintaining an illegitimate relationship with a woman.
The NHRC is a statutory body established by law in 1993, meant to reactively and proactively investigate alleged human rights violations by the government of India. It protects the rights, liberties, and dignity of the citizenry from the government.
