Hyderabad: PCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy sought an unconditional apology from Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for the atrocities allegedly committed by the police against people belonging to the SC, ST and other backward class communities in Jillella in Sircilla district.
In an open letter on Sunday, Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that the police had resorted to “barbaric brutality against the deprived class people of society”. The Chief Minister “deafening silence over the incident is shocking,” he wrote.
Coming soon after the handcuffing of tribal framers in Khammam, “this barbaric third degree torture of Dalits in police custody in Sircilla indicates that Dalits and tribals have no protection of their human rights in the state,” he alleged.
The TPCC chief asked Mr Rao to explain why were the Dalits kept in illegal custody for five days before they were produced for judicial custody. “If not under the instructions of IT minister and local MLA K.T. Rama Rao, how come police took this extreme step of torturing them,” he asked.
He alleged that villagers were subjected to “unruly behaviour, uncivilised abuse, indiscriminate beatings, intimidation and other mistreatment.”
He alleged that the abuses of police in the name of caste followed by physical torture by SP Vishwajit Kampati, sub-inspectors Ravi and Venkata Krishna and 17 constables “could not be explained”.
He said this took place after locals reacted to the death in an accident of one Bhomaiah, who belongs to the ST (Erukala) community.
