A large gathering of Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) members protested here on Monday against the “illegal” arrest of a local unit leader and his subsequent “harassment” in jail.
Addressing the gathering after having received bail, Aboobakkar Kulai, SDPI member, said he was arrested on December 10 by “anti-Muslim” officers of Mangalore Rural Police Station. “I was informed a Muslim man was arrested for allegedly stealing slabs from a truck that was transporting them. When I went to the station to bail him out, they said I was involved in the theft and arrested me. Just because I was Muslim they detained me in the jail for a month,” he said.
He said Hindu and Muslim prisoners were housed in separate blocks in the Mangalore District Prison, and there was a “difference in treatment and communal bias” shown by wardens.
SDPI members addressing the gathering said the incident showed that the police could “misuse” their powers to imprison those who challenge them. The party said they would bring the “truth of the matter” to light by filing RTIs to expose the “illegal wealth amassed through illegal detentions and blackmails such as this one.”
The protesters submitted a memorandum to Police Commissioner Manish Kharbikar, urging him to take action against the officers concerned.
