Eight policemen suspended pending inquiry

The residents of Batla House in South-East Delhi were woken up in the early hours of Thursday by the screams of their neighbours who were being forcibly taken away by policemen in plain clothes, who later turned out to be from the Bangladesh Cell of the neighbouring district of South Delhi. Eight policemen have been placed under suspension pending inquiry.

The occupants of a building in Batla House were sleeping when they heard a knock on the door around 1 a.m. When they opened the door, the policemen — only two of them in uniform — asked the families to accompany them to their office for questioning. It is alleged that they did not reveal the reason why the residents were being taken away so late at night.

“The families live on the ground and first floor of the building. Vegetable vendor Rushtam Khan lives his wife Raveena. Another occupant named baker Mehboob lives with his wife Qafeela. Three other residents were identified as Salman Khan, Wasim and Aslam. Two of the residents are from Kolkata and the others from Bihar,” said social worker Hamid Ali.

Fearing they would be framed, some occupants raised an alarm seeking help. “The neighbours were woken up by the commotion. They came out and found the families being forcibly pushed into a police vehicle. They confronted the team, asking on what grounds they were being detained,” said Mr. Ali.

Apprehending violence, a resident called up the area Station House Officer. It is learnt that the police officer had to fire two rounds to bring the situation under control.

“Subsequently, the residents lodged a complaint at the area police station against the accused policemen,” said Akhlak Ahmad of the Association for Protection of Civil Rights. It later turned out that the policemen were from the Bangladesh Cell of South Delhi and had come looking for Bangladeshi nationals. Taking the matter seriously, senior police officers have placed eight accused policemen under suspension pending inquiry into the entire episode.

“If the police were required to carry out such investigation, they could have done so during the day or could have collected information about the persons concerned through discreet enquiries before taking such a major step,” said an area resident.