Nerella incident: HC asks Home Secy to submit report

Hyderabad: Taking a serious view of the alleged police torture of Dalit villagers in Nerella and Ramachandrapuram villages in Siricilla district, the High Court at Hyderabad directed the State Home Secretary to submit a detailed report on the incident.

It also directed that two senior doctors from MGM Government Hospital in Warangal should be sent to examine the severity of the alleged injuries inflicted on six villagers who are presently taking treatment in a private hospital at Vemulavada. The doctors must submit a report of their findings to the court, and, if necessary, the victims must be shifted to NIMS in Hyderabad for better treatment.

The division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice J Uma Devi gave these directions on Wednesday while hearing a public interest litigation petition moved by Civil Liberties Committee President Gaddam Lakshman seeking either a CBI probe or a probe by a special investigation team into the police torture of Dalits in Nerella village and providing better treatment to the victims who suffered severe injuries.

The bench heard this matter as the counsel for the petitioner V Raghunath moved an urgent lunch motion. He informed the bench that daily over 200 lorries carrying sand mined from Thangalapalli stream passing through the villages and recently one of lorries driven recklessly by the driver mowed down a villager. Enraged villagers staged an agitation against the lorries passing through the villages.

The counsel further informed that the police came in civil clothes on the night of July 4 and took away eight persons from the village. Six of them were tortured severely with rubber lathis and they were given electric shock, including to their private parts, debilitating them.

Only after the villagers and other organisations started agitation against the illegal detention of the villagers by the police, they were produced before the court on July 8. The counsel also informed the bench that the District SP Vishwajit himself participated in the torture of the villagers and he had threatened to slap cases against the family members if the victims dared to go public.

The Telangana Advocate General D. Prakash Reddy in his submissions informed the bench that since allegations about severe injuries to the villagers are being made, the state government is willing to provide care for them in Warangal MGM Hospital. The bench instead suggested that NIMS Hyderabad would be a better choice if further care is needed for the victims and directed that if necessary arrangements be made to shift them. It adjourned the case to 16th of this month.

By Legal Correspondent