HYDERABAD: “Police killed our sons. We need justice and we are entitled to compensation. For this reason, we have filed the petition,” said Pinjari Hussain, father of one of the accused, Mohd Arif, in the rape and murder of a veterinarian at Shadnagar in 2019. He made this deposition when the State counsel asked him whether they were making “false allegations” against the police only with “an objective to get compensation”. He was cross-examined before the commission appointed by the Supreme Court, on Saturday.
Responding to the counsel for the commission, he said that his son’s name was ‘Mohd Apzal’ and that Mohd Arif was the name given to him by police. The lorry owner for whom Arif had been working, had come to their home along with four others in ‘civil dress’ and took his son. “When we sought to know the reason, they told me to ask my son as to what he had done.”
Hussain also stated that they were asked to bring Arif’s clothes to Shadnagar police station. But police officials did not receive them, so the family left his clothes there. “Our signatures were not obtained,” he said.
Discrepancy in age
Further, during the cross-examination by the State counsel, Hussain stated that his statement made before the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) was not read out to him and that he did not volunteer to affix his left thumb impression on it.
When asked about the difference of his age in a statement to NHRC and his Aadhar card, he said, “I did not mention my age but authorities have written my age in the Aadhar Card on their own.”
When asked about the age of Arif mentioned differently in his statement before the police (26), NHRC (24) and before the commission (25). “I did not say so. They have written this on their own,” he said.