Agency villagers allege police harassment

Warangal: A resident of Komatlagudem village in Kothaguda mandal in the district Jadi Sambaiah alleged that he was being tortured by police on the pretext of having connections with Maoists. Speaking to press persons here on Saturday, he said that he was tortured by police six days ago. He said that he was beaten up in the past and forced by naxal leader Pullanna to distribute posters by the naxals who branded him as police informer.

‘Later, I have confessed my mistake and went to jail,’ he said adding ‘Every now and then the police are arresting and torturing me brutally forcing me to confess that I still have links with the naxals which is not true’ The Human Rights Forum district general secretary B Raju has produced Sambaiah along with a person Veesam Papaiah of Chinthagudem village before the media here at Hanamkonda.

He alleged that a police sub-inspector Hari Krishna was behaving very insolently and beating up people to confess to crimes they did not commit. He said that it has become a practice for lower rung police personnel in agency mandals of Eturunagaram, Govindaraopet, Kothaguda to pick up persons at random and torture them to impress higher officials as the PLGA week was being observed.

The HRF leader accused the police of using former naxals and sympathizers as human shields during night patrolling in villages and forcing them to sleep in the police stations.