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A little after midnight on January 30, 2024, Malar* and her son Dhanush* had just finished a late dinner and were about to sleep when a couple of cops from the local police station turned up at their house in eastern Bengaluru. They wanted Dhanush to come with them because ‘sir’ wanted to take photos of him.
“They were drunk and in civilian clothes. We did not leave the house and told them we would come in the morning. I told them he has a mental illness and that I would bring him the next day, but they seemed determined to catch him and beat him,” Malar told TNM.
And that is exactly what the police did. Except it was Malar and Dhanush’s word against the police, with no evidence but the wounds that she saw on her son’s body. She had no way of fighting back against the police, no way to know what rules the police were supposed to follow.
That knowledge would come a few months later, when she visited her son in jail. Malar went on to file a complaint with the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission against the police who had turned up at her house looking for her son.
Although well-known, widespread and well-documented, police violence is hard to challenge. But an association in Bengaluru, spearheaded by a woman who bore the brunt of police harassment, is doing just that. About 270 families, the majority of them from Dalit or backward castes, have banded together to challenge the indiscriminate violence the police unleash on them as a matter of unwritten policy. People from these families told TNM that they feel their collective challenge to the police has yielded results.
Dhanush’s ordeal
That night, the police did not leave, despite Malar insisting that she would bring Dhanush* to the police station the next morning, forcing Malar and Dhanush to come out. “There was a scuffle, and Dhanush ran. I fell down and injured my hand. The next thing I know, around 10 other police officials turned up. There were a couple of police jeeps and a police car. One of the policemen hit my back several times. They vandalised the house, turned it inside out. When I questioned them, they abused me in filthy language, beat me and threatened to jail me.”
Over the next couple of hours, around 10 police officials stood guard outside Malar’s 10x10 feet house while 20 others looked for Dhanush in the neighbourhood. Around 3 am, they asked her for some of Dhanush’s clothes. That’s how she knew they had caught him. “I asked them where he was, but they told me to get lost.”
Malar decided to stay at her daughter’s house to avoid harassment from the police. It was only on the evening of February 1 when the police produced him in court that Malar saw how badly Dhanush was injured.
“He was so badly beaten. His arms and one of his eyes were swollen and his face had cuts. His lips were cracked and bleeding. His body had swollen so much that it felt like a stone, and it had turned black from the beating. God knows how many people beat him. They knew he had a mental illness, still they tortured him,” Malar said.
It was only after producing him in front of the judge that Malar was allowed to meet Dhanush. He told her that the police had beaten him badly and warned him against saying anything to the judge. The name of the police station has been withheld on request.
The judge is mandated by law to ask whether the police had assaulted the arrestee. But once in front of the judge, this issue is rarely brought up—either because the judges don’t ask or ignore the visible signs of assault or because the arrestees have been threatened into silence by the police.
Outside the court, the police told Malar that they had given Dhanush medicines. “What is the point? If my son dies, will he come back? He’s my only family. Even at this age, I work hard to support him because he can’t work.”
Dhanush was arrested for robbery/dacoity and has been in jail since. During one of her visits to prison, when she was in despair at her son’s situation, she was given the number of a woman named Chandrashree who could help.
Fighting the police
V Chandrashree, a resident of Neelasandra in southeast Bengaluru, started the Association of Prisoners’ Families for Justice (APFJ) in 2023 along with other families who have faced years of police harassment.
She alleged that the police began to harass her over a family dispute and falsely implicated her younger son for assault after her family members cut off her water supply. The last straw was the arrest of her older son on July 19, 2021, for vehicle theft. She believes her son is innocent of the crime the police are accusing him of.
“He admitted to me that he was present when it happened but that he did not participate. If he is guilty, let him be punished according to the law. But why are the police harassing us (family members)?” Chandrashree said.
The propensity of police towards violence against suspects, family members of suspects or accused, and ‘uncooperative witnesses’ is well documented in India. Eleven per cent of police personnel ‘strongly justify’ hitting/slapping family members of an absconding accused and 30% ‘somewhat justify’ it, according to the Status of Policing in India reports for 2025 and 2024.
Distressed by her son’s arrest, Chandrashree would often talk to PUCL vice president YJ Rajendra, who encouraged her to address widespread police harassment. “He told me that I could fight this. He would tell me, ‘Let those who have done wrong be punished. Why are innocent people also being punished?’ He gave me the courage to start the association.”
He put her in touch with the Legal Services Cell of St Joseph’s College of Law, which offers free legal aid, including to the members of the Association.
Eventually, she began documenting police violence in Bengaluru, starting with her neighbourhood, Adugodi, where she knew other families who’d faced such harassment.
Initially, the families were reluctant to trust her because they thought she was out to make money, as no one knew of any organisation which helped such families. Over time, Chandrashree was able to build that trust.
Since then, she has documented police violence as testified by around 270 families in Jigani, Attibele, Sarjapura, Banashankari, Anekal, Chandapura, Bannerghatta, Koramangala, Madiwala, Laggere, Cottonpet, Viveknagar, and Neelasandra. Over 70% of the families in the Association are from the Scheduled Castes or backward classes, she says.
“Modalu naavu dhairya tumbistheve (We first fill them with courage). The first step is to stand by the families because they’re often broken mentally. The police don’t do policing; they behave like rowdies,” Chandrashree says.
That was certainly true in Malar’s case.
Malar’s husband died 18 years ago, leaving her to raise Dhanush and educate him on her own. After obtaining a diploma from an industrial training institute, Dhanush got a job at a public sector unit, but their life was upended when he fell ill about seven years ago.
“He was treated at NIMHANS for four months. He was given everything from sleeping tablets to electric shocks. There’s no temple I haven’t gone to for him. I struggled a lot to look after him these last seven years, and the police have just had it in for him.”
When Malar spoke to TNM, she did not know the name of the illness – schizophrenia – her son was living with and had to ask her lawyer, Nelson P Raj, who is representing Dhanush in a case.
It was a little after that that Dhanush first got in trouble with the police. Malar alleges that police arrested her son in 2021 after falsely accusing him of stealing a phone from someone at knifepoint. She managed to get him out of prison on bail in a month.
Since then, she alleges, the police have harassed her and beaten and threatened Dhanush on several occasions. “Even when he had to go to the police station to sign, the police would beat him.” The alleged harassment may have made his illness worse. “He talks about people coming after him and says that people are scolding him. Any man who looks at him for too long looks like the police to him. That’s how badly they’ve scared him.”
Seven years of handling an adult son diagnosed with schizophrenia and protecting him from police harassment became overwhelming when the police arrested him for a second time in early 2024. Although her son is still in jail, becoming a part of the Association gave her the strength she did not have before.
“Since my son fell ill, I thought I was all alone and that I had no support except god. But now, after meeting people from the Association, I feel as if I have a family. I’m not afraid anymore. Now I can speak my mind freely,” she told TNM.
Complaints with KSHRC
The families that the Association works with face several problems. After learning the type of harassment they face, the association takes a call on the intervention based on their most urgent requirement.
This can range from filing complaints with the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission (KSHRC), providing legal aid, getting police to release vehicles, and turning up at police stations demanding the release of young men held illegally in lock-up.
The Association filed a complaint with the KSHRC accusing the police of assaulting Malar while arresting Dhanush. The police initially tried to brush it off by telling the KSHRC that Dhanush’s case was sub judice and, therefore, they could not say anything, but the Association set the record straight with the KSHRC—that the police had allegedly assaulted Malar while arresting her son.
Malar, who used to work as a domestic worker, can no longer find work easily because of the stigma created by the police turning up at her house. The assault has also damaged her body and affected her ability to work.
On August 29, 2024, Chandrashree filed a complaint with the KSHRC, alleging that the police attached to the Bannerghatta, Konanakunte, Mico Layout and Jigani police stations were harassing four female members of the Association by repeatedly filing cases against members of their families.
“Police ask for thousands of rupees to release members of their families from police stations. The police must stop turning up in the middle of the night at houses where there are only women. Police go to their houses and abuse them with filthy language and assault them with lathis. I am filing this complaint through the Association on their behalf, as they are deeply fearful of the police who harass them so much that they have almost been driven to suicide,” she said in the complaint.
KSHRC officials said that the inquiry in the case had been completed and that the report had been sent to the complainant for their comments, according to procedure.
Twice, Chandrashree and association members had to intervene to get the police to release vehicles that they had seized. In a more serious instance, they managed to get a young man out of lock-up, but only after he had been badly beaten.
Acting KSHRC chairperson TS Shyam Bhat estimated that about a third of the 400 complaints the commission receives each month relate to allegations of police brutality. This includes two-three cases of illegal detention each month.
“In cases where allegations are proved, we impose a fine and make recommendations to the government regarding action against the officer. In some cases, we have awarded compensation to the victim, which was drawn from the salary of the officer,” Bhat told TNM.
A police officer with the investigation wing of the KSHRC told TNM on condition of anonymity that only about 20% of cases against the police are proved. In several cases, the complaints are withdrawn or the complainants do not show up after lodging the complaint. But in a large number of cases – about 30% to 40% – the police find no evidence.
The officer said that only about 10% of cases of illegal detention are proven, he said.
“By the time we reach there, the person is no longer in the police station lockup. But sometimes the police hold them elsewhere. The victim does not know where that location is, and the police deny ever detaining the person. In such cases we note that no evidence could be found to corroborate the victims’ allegations,” he said, adding that the KSHRC takes a final call on whether the allegations are proved or not.
When stepping outside your home becomes dangerous
Last year, the mother of an 18-year-old man named Suhas*, who had been picked up by the police, reached out to Chandrashree, who landed up at the police station. “It was raining that day, but we still stood outside the police station until they released him.”
Chandrashree said that the police had picked him up when he was simply standing outside his house. “If they go near someone else’s house or a place that’s not their neighbourhood and create a ruckus, it’s wrong. But why do these boys not have the freedom to stand outside their houses? It’s not like they can go to pubs.”
Bengaluru-based lawyer Clifton D’Rozario says that the situation faced by Suhas was common in many parts of the city, including his own neighbourhood, Ejipura.
“Spend a couple of days in our area. It’s an evening thing. The police are on patrol, and they throw the choicest of abuse at boys and young men, who are just sitting on the road trying to have conversations with their friends. The way the police talk to you is condescending and disrespectful. It’s very dehumanising. In some areas, the police actually lathicharge you. It’s been like this for as long as I can remember.”
Clifton too pointed out that young men had nowhere else to go. “The amount of public space has shrunk. The only spaces you have are roadside addas—the tea shops.”
Many parts of Bengaluru don’t have spaces where people can spend time together without having to shell out money. Research shows that access to public parks in Bengaluru is shaped by caste and class, particularly in the eastern part of the city. Even when such spaces exist, they are tightly controlled by the government or resident welfare associations who police ‘unsavoury’ characters out of such common spaces.
The only spaces left to marginalised people are those that are right in front of their houses or in the extended neighbourhood. These spaces then become what the American sociologist Ray Oldenburg called the third place.
Ray first developed the concept of the third place in his 1989 book The Great Good Place. In an essay on third spaces co-authored with Karen Christensen, Ray says, “The third place is not home and not work, but instead one of the physical settings that have throughout history encouraged a sense of warmth, conviviality, and that special kind of human sustenance we call community. These settings include cafés, taverns, libraries and hair salons, where people from different walks of life gather to hang out in an informal atmosphere.”
Small victories and the long haul
The Association and its members have won several battles with the police on an individual level, Chandrashree says. “A lot of people praised us because the abuse has stopped.”
A woman named Sukumari* reached out to Chandrashree one day, alleging that the police had ransacked her house, planted weapons and stolen Rs 1 lakh that the family had arranged for the bail for one of her grandsons. She alleged that police from three police stations had been harassing her grandsons for several years. The names of the police stations have been withheld on request.
After Sukumari reached out, Chandrashree, YJ Rajendra and others from the Association first went to the Mahila Sahayavani, a helpline run by the Bengaluru City Police. However, after speaking to officials there, they realised that they would have to go to the police station.
At the police station, Sukumari confronted the police, asking how they dared to plant weapons at her house and call her family ganja users. At that point, two police personnel tried to hit her, but they stopped when Rajendra questioned what gave them the right to hit someone. Since then, the police completely stopped going to their house, whether during the day or at night.
Chandrashree points out that the reason for this victory was Sukumari going to the police station herself. “It doesn’t work if the affected person is not there. We cannot go on behalf of another person.”
Although there are several such stories, word about the Association appears to have spread, and there has been a noticeable difference in the attitude of the police.
Chandrashree recalled that she once received a call regarding a fight that had reached the police station. “The police had not filed a case because they were demanding money from both parties. The inspector’s attitude changed when I explained who I was and what I do. After that, he talked coolly to me. The police don’t go to that slum to harass people anymore. I was very happy.”
Chandrashree’s long-term vision
The short-term victories are significant, but Chandrashree has a long-term plan in mind. Armed with the documentation – testimonies from families who’ve been harassed by the police – and lawyers committed to her cause, she plans to approach the Karnataka High Court, seeking a remedy for the current situation.
Many cases that the Association handles relate to the harassment of the families of people against whom the police have opened rowdy sheets or history sheets. Members of the Associations themselves face harassment as the police open rowdy sheets or history sheets against men in their families.
This unleashes a cycle of harassment that has driven many a family to despair.
Chandrashree believes in reformative, not retributive justice. “People who have rowdy sheets against them do want to change and acknowledge what they’ve done wrong. But they’re not being allowed to continue their lives. We will ask the Karnataka High Court to frame rules regarding the type of cases and number of cases for which rowdy sheets can be opened.”
This may be an ambitious and unprecedented demand. While rowdy sheets and history sheets have been challenged by individuals, their constitutionality may never have been challenged collectively by a group of marginalised people whose rights have been infringed by institutional surveillance that is based largely on prejudice.
Legal scholars have long argued that rowdy sheets and history sheets carry remnants of the Criminal Tribes Act, which was enacted on the idea that certain communities or types of people are inherently criminal and must therefore be under constant surveillance. Police manuals across the country have such provisions.
Chapter 21 of the Karnataka Police Manual deals with Crime History and lays down the procedure for the surveillance of goondas, suspects, rowdies and convicts. The methods of surveillance include the opening and continuation of rowdy sheets and history sheets. The manner in which the Manual defines the terms ‘suspects’ and ‘rowdies’ carries the vestiges of the Criminal Tribes Act, which declared entire communities as ‘criminals’ based on their appearance.
Individual cases in which people challenge the history sheets opened against them routinely make it to the courts, which have only castigated the police for not following procedures specified in police manuals.
In April 2022, the Karnataka High Court framed guidelines for how the police are to open history sheets and rowdy sheets in BS Prakash vs the State of Karnataka. The court was hearing 20 petitions seeking various reliefs pertaining to history sheets and rowdy sheets.
The petitioners argued that there was no discernible procedure for entering their names in rowdy registers and that there was no “procedural and substantive safeguarding of victims of rowdy sheeting, which has many implications on their liberty, privacy, and reputation.”
The state contended that rowdy sheeting had been a “necessary practice since colonial days, and it is managed by police officials with expertise and due restraint,” and that there was “enough justification for ‘institutionalised rowdy sheeting’ since it is essential for maintaining law and order and peace and tranquillity in an organised society.”
The HC then laid down nine guidelines which largely repeat the procedure regarding the opening of a history sheet already laid down in the Karnataka Police Manual. The only additional point in the guidelines is the HC’s direction to the police to “mention that he may petition the Police Complaints Authority” when issued a notice asking why his name should not be registered as a rowdy.
The HC also said that all records pertaining to the opening of history sheets or rowdy sheets are exempt from the Right to Information, and are to be kept confidential, although they are to be made available to the aggrieved person. The HC also states that violation of the guidelines “shall constitute a major misconduct” that would be entered in the service registers of the officers concerned.
The Supreme Court’s approach to surveillance and the maintenance of history sheets has been 'minimalist', the legal scholar Mrinal Satish argues in his paper ‘Bad Characters, History Sheeters, Budding Goondas and Rowdies – Police Surveillance files and Intelligence Databases in India’. This means that the Court decided on the narrowest possible grounds sufficient to resolve the immediate case, leaving the broader issues of principle for the legislature or executive.
Mrinal mentions several cases in which the SC has held that such surveillance is constitutional and merely directs that procedural safeguards are followed to prevent misuse.
In Malak Singh vs State of Punjab, the court held that the right to privacy can be curtailed if “compelling state interests exist.” In Govind vs State of Madhya Pradesh, the court read non-existent provisions into the law and said that aggrieved people could approach the courts. “In observing so, it failed to consider that most people who are placed under surveillance might not have access to a court,” Mrinal said in the paper.
Even as the Association continues its work with families of prisoners being harassed by the police, it has taken another bold step. The Association is one of the petitioners in a PIL filed in the Karnataka High Court over the death of Darshan, a young Dalit man, allegedly due to custodial torture at the Viveknagar police station.
“The fact that there was a custodial killing in Viveknagar in this day and age exemplifies just how much change is required in policing, especially when it comes to the poor,” says Clifton, one of the advocates who is representing the Association of Prisoners' Families for Justice and People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) in the PIL.
(* Names changed on request)
This reporting is made possible with support from Report for the World, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project.
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