HYDERABAD: TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Sunday demanded that chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao order a probe by a sitting judge of the High Court into the alleged atrocities and brutality committed by the police on SC, ST and BCs of Nerella in Thangalappaly mandal in Rajanna- Sircilla district. In an open letter to Rao, Reddy said the chief minister’s silence on the issue shocked the Dalit community’ “Coming soon after the handcuffing of tribal farmers in Khammam, this barbaric third degree torture of Dalits in police custody in Sircilla indicates that Dalits and tribals have no protection of their human rights in ‘Bangaru Telangana’.
Why had the Dalits been kept in illegal custody for five days before they were produced before the magistrate concerned? Your son and IT minister KT Rama Rao is the MLA from Sircilla district. Is it possible that the Dalits were taken into illegal custody and tortured for five days without his notice? Whose instructions were the SP and local police officers were following?” Reddy asked. The state Congress chief also alleged that the SP and the local police officers might be on the payrolls of the local sand mafia to protect their interests.
“The villagers were subjected to unruly behaviour, uncivilised abuses, indiscriminate beatings, intimidation and another mistreatment. They were punished by the local police officers in an inhuman way just because they tried to hold a protest against the sand mafia.” Reddy said police took no action in the past on repeated complaints lodged by the villagers about the illegal movement of lorries and other vehicles in their area by the sand mafia which was causing many accidents.
Uttam Kumar Reddy said police did not follow the guidelines of the Supreme Court on arrest and detention. “The entire village is in panic and fears for life and liberty. It is not an exaggeration to say that the youth aged between 18 and 40 years have not returned to the village till date, fearing torture and implication in false cases by the police,” he said.