BENGALURU: The Karnataka State Human Rights Commission has imposed a fine of `25,000 on five city policemen for illegally detaining and torturing a person.
The commission’s acting chairperson Meera C Saksena directed the city police commissioner to recover the fine from the five accused officers and give it to the victim Owais Sabir Hussain, the brother of whistle blower H M Farooq, as compensation.
The fine has been split between Superintendent of Police D Devaraja, BMTF, Assistant Commissioner of Police H Siddappa, KR Puram Sub Division, Inspector R Puneeth Kumar, Vidyaranyapuram police station, Sub-Inspector V R Deepak, and BMTF constable Hanumeshi. They have to pay `8,000, `7,000, `6,000, `3,000 and `1,000, respectively. “At the time of the incident, all the accused officers were working with City Crime Branch (CCB), Bengaluru,” the commission said.
The officers allegedly barged into Owais’s house on February 27, 2013, and assaulted him. He was falsely implicated in a case.
In his complaint to the commission, filed through advocate M R Balakrishna, Owais stated that, “I was beaten black and blue. Then DCP Devaraja and ACP Siddappa, CCB, hit me on my head with a revolver. Inspector Puneeth Kumar, Sub-Inspector Deepak and constable Deepak also assaulted me all over my body using a hockey stick. Electric shocks were administered to my feet and they sprayed some liquid into my eyes repeatedly. All of them threatened me that I would be ‘encountered’ or implicated in a terrorist case if I complained to the magistrate about the torture...”
Referring to the incident, the commission observed that this shows the attitude of the police, who tried to link a person with a crime even through he was not involved.
The crime related to the theft of gold jewels from the house of one Meena Sohal on Trinity Church Road, Ulsoor. She had complained to the police on January 12, 2012. Police arrested him in this case on February 27, 2013 and detained him till March 4, 2013.
The commission said as the case against Owais and others was not established, a final C-report was submitted to the first ACMM court. When the police interrogated nine accused including Owais, arrested by CCB, no clue regarding the theft of the articles was found. Police therefore filed the ‘C’ report before the court, with a prayer to treat the case as one which could not be solved.
The commission directed the DGP and the state government to initiate disciplinary action against the officials, with a direction to report the action taken on the issue to it within three months from the date of receipt of its order.