The arrested youth, who were taken into custody by the police on charges of eve-teasing, have asserted that they were not eve-teasers as branded by police and alleged that they were picked by police for publicity.
Parents of the arrested persons too questioned the police for producing minors and students before the media. They alleged that police picked up the boys when no girls were around.
Police did not produce any evidence recorded by body-own cameras of the Mahila Rakshak Teams or the CCTV footages to show that the arrested resorted to eve-teasing. “I and my two classmates were chatting near a bus stop around 4.30 p.m. on Thursday. Suddenly, a group of policemen pounced on us and whisked us away to the police station. Later, they shifted us to Central Crime Station (CCS), detained and informed our parents and branded as eve-teasers,” said a minor student, who was arrested on charges of teasing. Family members of the arrested said that their children were minors and that they possessed education certificates. The police officers produced them before the mediapersons and made their faces public, they alleged.
“As it was holiday on Republic Day, there was not much rush at the bus stops. But, police said that the arrested were teasing girls at the bus bays and busy junctions around 4 p.m. Police formed Mahila Rakshak Teams on Thursday, and to announce this, they arrested our children for publicity,” alleged a mother.
“If my son harass or tease girls, I will thrash him as I have a daughter. Now, the police produced my son in the press conference for no mistake of his. He is feeling much insulted and was seen crying in the police station. If he resorts to any extreme step who is responsible,” questioned a cooli, whose son was arrested on charges of teasing.
The parents expressed fear that police may harass the students later as they took all their particulars such as names, parents, college, address and phone numbers and urged the Police Commissioner to avoid any further harassment.
When asked, Mahila Rakshak Teams in-charge G. Venkata Ramana claimed the youth were arrested only after they were found teasing girls at different places.
