Date:05/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/05/stories/2008120554060400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Four accuse police of torturing them

Staff Reporter

The victims are from Nonavinakere in Tiptur taluk

— Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.

Bearing the brunt: Manjunath and Jagadish who have accused the Tiptur police of ill-treating them.

BANGALORE: Close on the heels of the allegation of illegal detention of an Indiranagar couple by the Bangalore city police, constables and the sub-inspector at the Nonavinakere station in Tiptur taluk of Tumkur district have been accused of illegally arresting and assaulting four men. Three of them were allegedly made to sit in the nude the whole night.

The victims approached the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission (KSHRC) here on Thursday and lodged a complaint against the police.

The complainants are H.B. Ramakrishna Gowda alias Prakash, Jagadish, Basavanna and Manjunath, all residents of Nonavinakere. Manjunath and Jagadish met Bipin Gopalakrishna, Inspector-General of Police, SHRC, and related the sequence of events.

‘False’ complaint

According to them, a person filed a “false” complaint against the four at Nonavinakere police station recently.

On November 11, sub-inspector Krishnaraju summoned them to the police station and they were arrested. They were handcuffed and sent to court by a KSRTC bus.

The four men also alleged that the police tortured them physically and mentally.

“We were handcuffed and sent to court. This embarrassed and insulted us,” Mr. Jagadish and Mr. Manjunath told The Hindu.

“On November 21, 2008, the police beat up me and threw me on the road. When my wife Vijayamma intervened, the police verbally abused and pushed her. I was severely injured and my friends admitted me to the Tiptur Government Hospital”, Mr. Manjunath said.

According to him, on the same day around 11.30 p.m., Mr. Krishnaraju, constables Mallikarjun, Prakash and other policemen visited the hospital and threatened that he would be fixed in a case if he disclosed the matter to other people and in court. Later, the police took Mr. Manjunath and the other three to the Tiptur Rural police station and assaulted them.

Except Mr. Manjunath, the others were made to sit naked at the police station with handcuffs on, he alleged.

“We all were produced before the Tiptur magistrate on November 22. The police threatened to kill us and hence we were unable to tell the truth before the magistrate,” Mr. Jagadish said.

On behalf of the victims, Prakash Kariyappa, fact-finding coordinator of the South India Cell for Human Rights Education and Monitoring (SICHREM), lodged the complaint.

“Under the law, the police should not handcuff the accused. But in this case the police proceeded to do that and also behaved in a violent manner,” Mr. Prakash said.