The BJP State official spokesperson Bandi Sanjay Kumar demanded that the State government suspend Rajanna-Sircilla SP Vishwajit Kampati, CCS sub-inspector B. Ravinder and 18 police constables for illegally detaining eight villagers of Nerella and Jillela villages and resorting to third degree torture for five days on the charges of setting fire to the sand-laden lorries.
The BJP leader also sought registration of criminal cases against the SP and other police officials under the IPC 307 for brutally thrashing the villagers and causing multiple injuries. He threatened to launch agitations till the cases were registered and the officials suspended.
Talking to newsmen along with the family members of the victims in Karimnagar town on Wednesday, he said that the villagers had reportedly set the sand-laden lorries on fire in Ramachandrapur village on July 2 after a lorry killed a villager due to rash driving. During the last one month, more than four villagers were killed due to rash driving by the sand-laden lorries. The villagers had staged dharnas to regulate the sand-laden lorries, but in vain.
On July 2, following the death, the agitated villagers resorted to vandalism and pelted stones at the police, causing injuries.On July 4, the police picked up eight villagers from Nerella and Jillela villages and secretly confined them in the Tadur police headquarters, and resorted to third degree torture for five days; giving them pain killers and causing serious injuries.
He said the SP had also threatened the victims not to open their mouth before the magistrate, failing which he would register brothel cases and ganja smuggling cases against the women in the family.
Ridiculing the police claims that they had not beaten the victims, the BJP leader asked why the jail authorities had kept the victims in prison ward in the hospital and was providing treatment to the injuries since last five days.
Flaying the SP for registering three false cases under IPC 307 against the victims, he asked whether the victims had really beaten up any police official.
He said that they had approached the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) on Tuesday when the DGP also failed to respond to the complaint lodge by them.
The victims’ family members also alleged that the SP had used abusive language against them and threatened to kill them in encounter.
