HYDERABAD: A 40-year-old businessman from Hyderabad, holding a Canadian citizenship, was arrested a week-ago for smoking on the road. He has now approached the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC), alleging high-handedness of Habeeb Nagar police.
Syed Noor claimed that these roads do not come under public places, as per the Supreme Court guidelines, and that the police falsely booked cases against him and others.
He stated that the cops humiliated them by forcing to come before the media. Noor said that Inspector of Habeeb Nagar, Madhukar Swamy, had warned him to leave the country.
Inspector Madhukar Swamy said that all the allegations made by Noor are baseless and they followed the guidelines as per the law. “Noor is mentally unsound. He was earlier booked for misbehaving with a woman in his neighbourhood. We verified his medical records. He is under psychiatric treatment. So, we did not arrest him. He was counselled along with more than 20 others who were caught smoking in public places,” the inspector said.
Syed Noor stated that on February 1 evening, after offering prayers at Mallepally mosque, he came out and smoking on the road.
Seeing him, police allegedly clicked his photos. Later, the police came and asked him to get into the vehicle and took him to the police station without citing any reason.
He was joined by many others at the police station. After making them stand for more than an hour, Inspector Madhukar Swamy told them the reason for bringing them to the police station.
“After seeing me, he reacted rudely and asked why I smoke on the road. When I told that there was no ‘NO SMOKING’ board and I knew that applied only to public places, he got offended and told me to return to Canada. When I said that I will not leave the country, he abused and spoke irrelevant things and knowing that I was depressed, made fun of my mental health condition.” Noor said.
The Human rights commission ordered the ACP Goshamahal to conduct an inquiry and submit a report by April 12.
