Follow TNM's WhatsApp channel for news updates and story links.
Sharath Chandra Pawar, Nalgonda Superintendent of Police, has denied the allegations against the police after the Telangana Commission for Scheduled Castes and Tribes registered a formal complaint over the custodial torture of a 22-year-old tribal man, Dhanavath Sai Siddu.
Siddu was one among the many who joined in protest, held in the first two weeks of September, against urea shortage in Telangana which has adversely affected farmers in the state.
On Tuesday, September 23, a video of Siddu, in which he accused the police of physically torturing him and abusing him with casteist slurs, went viral.
Following this, his wife, Dhanavath Bhumika, filed a formal complaint with the Telangana Commission for Scheduled Castes and Tribes on Wednesday, 24 September, seeking action against Sub-Inspector Srikanth Reddy, Constable Kotaiah, and others who allegedly assaulted her husband.
In her complaint, Bhumika stated that police officers took Siddu away at about 6 am on 9 September at the peak of the urea protests. She said that after reaching the police station, he was taken to a room upstairs, where the Sub-Inspector and two constables took turns beating her husband so severely that he could not stand properly when asked to get up and walk.
Speaking to TNM, Nalgonda SP Sharath Chandra Pawar stated that Siddu and his brother Naveen were initially involved in a fight at a local bar with two other men who also happen to be brothers. Following the physical altercation, Siddu approached the police on September 2.
“We registered an FIR. But later that night Siddu and Venkat went to the house of the two other men and beat up their parents. The mother’s nose was severely damaged and they injured the father’s ribcage,” the SP stated.
Sharath Chandra added that following this the Nalgonda police registered an FIR and post investigation produced Siddu before the magistrate court on September 12.
“After coming out on bail, he accused the police of torturing him. The magistrate ordered a thorough medical exam and found no injury as he had claimed,” the SP told TNM adding that while Siddu did participate in a urea protest in Nalgonda’s Miryalaguda city, he was an auto-driver and not a farmer to begin with either.
The SP added that he has given a written rejoinder to the Telangana Commission for Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribes (SC/ST) following Bhumika’s complaint.