The shocking incident in which a team of escort police brought 10 farmers — who were in judicial remand in connection with last month’s attack on the Khammam agriculture market yard — in handcuffs to the local court on Thursday sparked massive outcry.
The farmers were taken inside the court complex with handcuffs in full public view, leaving their family members and well-wishers who gathered outside shell shocked. They were granted bail in the cases on the condition that they should appear at the Three Town police station once a week for three months.
Sharp reactions
The incident evoked sharp reactions from the Opposition parties which termed the handcuffing of farmers the worst form of “autocratic rule” and height of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government’s “vindictive attitude” towards the farmers who were victims of chilli price crash.
Farmers’ organisations called the incident a “high-handed act” and a blatant violation of the Supreme Court’s guidelines on handcuffing. Speaking to The Hindu, Telangana Rytu Sangham State assistant secretary Nunna Nageswara Rao condemned the handcuffing of farmers and demanded stern action against those responsible for the incident.
Taking exception to the incident, CPI (ML-New Democracy) district secretary P. Ranga Rao said: “The way the hapless farmers were implicated in criminal cases on charges of rioting for no fault of theirs and handcuffed in full public view expose the anti-farmer policies of the TRS government and its inhuman attitude towards the crisis hit farmers.”
Following the public outrage, two Armed Reserve Sub-Inspectors, Venkateswara Rao and Purna Naik, were suspended.
An inquiry had been ordered into the incident, Commissioner of Police, Khammam, Tafseer Iqbal said when contacted.
