Telangana man alleges police assault, cops file FIRs against him

Twenty-two-year-old Mohammed Fayaz was walking home on the night of October 2, just past midnight, on the streets of Mahabubnagar in Telangana. When he was a few hundred metres away from his home in Habibnagar, two police constables on patrol duty, Balaram and Kowdi Raju, allegedly beat him up so badly that he started bleeding from the head.

The government hospital that treated Fayaz recorded a laceration on the left side of the head, abrasion on the face, and blunt trauma to the chest, neck and leg. But according to the Mahabubnagar I Town police, the injuries are Fayaz’s own fault. When trying to run away from the constables, they say Fayaz “ran into a nearby house, fell down and sustained a bleeding injury to his head.” 

While there has been no inquiry or action against the constables so far, the police have booked Fayaz for trespassing into Mohammed Kadar’s house in Habibnagar and intimidating him. Except Kadar, who is named as the complainant, told TNM that this never happened and that he was forced by the I Town police to sign the complaint letter.

A YouTuber named Azhar Khan, who reported on the incident and protests against the police by Fayaz and his family, was also booked for defamation of one of the constables.

Azhar and Fayaz have insisted that both the cases are false. Fayaz and his family have approached the Telangana High Court to quash both the FIRs against them. They have also demanded a departmental enquiry against the two constables who allegedly assaulted Fayaz.

The night of the alleged assault

Fayaz, who does upholstery work on autos, is the sole breadwinner in his family. On the night of October 2, he was walking back home around 12.30 am from a dinner hosted by a relative on the occasion of the Gyarvi Sharif festival, according to his lawyer, Mounis Abidi. 

Fayaz alleges that the two constables, Raju and Balaram, targeted him unprovoked and launched a brutal physical assault.

Fayaz has said that as soon as he saw the constables, he instinctively tried to flee, but they allegedly dragged him and rammed his head against a wall, shoved a cycle onto him and hit him on his legs with lathis. 

Mahabubnagar I Town Station House Officer (SHO) M Appaiah denied these allegations. Speaking to TNM, he said that the constables were on patrol duty that night when they responded to calls to the police control room from residents of Habibnagar alleging nuisance by a group of four to five men. However, these other men have not been identified yet, he said.

“After 12.30 in the night, these men were roaming outside. When our constables went there, they saw them and ran away. Fayaz fell and hurt himself. He entered a man’s premises, knocked on his door, and left immediately,” Appaiah said, adding that whatever was mentioned in the two FIRs related to the incident is what actually happened.

On October 3, an FIR was registered against Fayaz on charges of house-trespass and criminal intimidation, based on a complaint from Mohammed Kadar. Kadar’s complaint states that around 12.30 am the previous night, Fayaz, who lives in the adjacent lane, “unlawfully opened their compound gate and entered the premises.” It says he then knocked loudly on the door, and when Kadar opened the door, he got scared and pushed him away. The FIR says the complainant sought action against Fayaz “for unlawfully entering their compound by opening the gate, knocking on the doors of their house, and causing fear and alarm to him and his family members.”

But Kadar told TNM that this never happened. “The police forced me to sign the complaint. Fayaz didn’t come into my house that night. He only came till the gate. By then, the constables caught him, took him away and beat him,” he said. 

Soon after Fayaz was injured, his family took him to the Government Medical College and Government General Hospital (GGH) in Metugadda. His family was given a Medico-Legal Certificate (MLC), which mentions the time of visit as 1.46 am on October 3. It lists the following injuries – laceration on the left side of the head, abrasion on the face, blunt trauma to chest, neck and leg.

Fayaz’s family and friends soon gathered at the I Town police station, protesting the alleged assault by the constables. Azhar Khan, who runs a local YouTube channel called Metro News Updates, was informed about the protests and turned up to cover them. The next day, Fayaz alleges he submitted a written complaint at the I Town police station against the two constables, but no action was initiated. 

Second FIR against Fayaz, Azhar

On October 3, Azhar published a video on his channel which included interviews with Fayaz and his relatives, and visuals of them confronting the constables. The same day, a second FIR was booked against Fayaz, Azhar and other unnamed persons, this time for charges including defamation, statements conducing to public mischief, assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty, and also for sharing false information online under the IT Act.

This FIR was based on a complaint by constable Kowdi Raju. It said that he and another constable Mogilaiah were on patrol duty on the night of October 2 when they noticed four young persons making loud noises and whistling. When they asked them to go home, the young men “abused them in filthy language and questioned their authority,” the complaint said. 

It also said that while fleeing from the spot, one of them ran into a nearby house, fell down and sustained a bleeding injury to his head. But the men still followed the constables to the police station and continued to abuse them, according to the complaint. 

It said that one of them, Azhar, recorded a video of constable Raju and falsely stated that he had consumed alcohol, “causing damage to the complainant’s reputation.”

SHO Appaiah repeated the allegation, saying, “A reporter who was with Fayaz put out a false video portraying one of the constables as drunk. Such things affect our morale. The constable’s blood sample has been sent for medical examination, we are waiting for the report.”

The video in question shows a group of protesters surrounding the constable Raju, asking him if he is drunk. Amid the commotion, he seems to say, ‘Yes I am drunk.’ The others then ask him why he isn’t wearing his name badge.

Azhar told TNM that he received this video from one of the protesters the previous night, but did not use it in his initial videos. “I did not want to make an unsubstantiated allegation that the constable had been drunk. I only spoke about the alleged assault on Fayaz. Still, they registered a false FIR on me,” he said. Only on October 10, a week after the FIR was registered, he put out a video on his channel showing the constable’s clip, to say that the charges were false, he said.

Fayaz and his family have approached the High Court to quash the two FIRs against him and Azhar. They have also asked the state police to initiate a comprehensive departmental enquiry against the two constables, led by a high-ranking senior police officer independent of the Mahbubnagar district.