Hyderabad FC claims their driver was assaulted by cops, authorities deny allegations
Hyderabad FC claims their driver was assaulted by cops, authorities deny allegations

Hyderabad FC claims their driver was assaulted by cops, authorities deny allegations

The players alleged that their driver was beaten up by a policeman in front of the entire team and "dragged into the police station".

A major row is underway after the bus driver of the Hyderabad Football Club (FC), which is presently playing the Indian Super League (ISL), was allegedly assaulted by traffic police personnel from the Cyberabad commissionerate.

The authorities have denied the allegations of manhandling and said that the driver of the bus was using an air horn, which was prohibited.

The incident took place on Wednesday night as players of the Hyderabad FC team were returning to their hotel, after a match with North East United at Gachibowli stadium.

The players alleged that their driver was beaten up by a policeman in front of the entire team and "dragged into the police station".

"We are a professional football club comprising of players from the Indian national team as well as 10 foreign nationals. We strongly condemn this incident which has left players in a state of shock and stress especially after a tough game. Let alone distressed, they were absolutely horrified as seeing officials in uniform behave in a manner that was totally uncalled for," Hyderabad FC said in a statement.

Requesting an immediate inquiry into the incident, they also asked for adequate security to the team.

Hyderabad FC also posted a video of Indian defender Adil Khan narrating the sequence of events that took place.

In the video, Adil said, "We were already disappointed that the match didn't go our way....suddenly the traffic police stopped the bus and started misbehaving with the driver. From what I understood, the driver said that there were players in the bus and he was dropping them to the hotel. But the policemen dragged him out and beat him up, which was not right."

However, the Cyberabad traffic police denied the allegations in a statement issued on Thursday.

"The claims of manhandling and security issues of the football team are baseless and far from the truth. Hyderabad FC is advised to ask their transport agent to obey all traffic rules and also remove prohibited air horns from their vehicles," the Cyberabad traffic police said.

The authorities said that the vehicle was stopped on November 6 at 10.28 pm for "violations of excessive honking and using prohibited air horn, as part of their routine enforcement against heavy vehicles during night time in the IT Corridor."

"As part of the process, the driver was asked to provide driving license and other mandatory details. Instead of lawfully obeying the instructions of the traffic police on duty, he kept on arguing and was causing traffic issues on the main road," the police added.

They said that there was no physical assault as claimed by the players and the club.

A case has been registered against the bus driver, for causing noise pollution.

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