Coming out in support of the two women and their families, who face harassment allegedly from the Ullal police, 10 women have lodged a complaint with the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) R. Ramesh here.
The women alleged that the Ullal police had been harassing the relatives of Althaf and Illyas, both residents of the Dharmanagara Bottu area of Ullal.
Althaf's sister Naseema, who lodged a complaint with Mr. Ramesh, said: “They came three times on Monday, once in the morning, afternoon and at night.
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They pushed us around and banged the doors, and were rude to us.” According to the complaint, Illyas was accused of extortion by Usman Kallapu. Usman and his brother had threatened Naseema and other members of the family, the complaint said. Nazeema, a neighbour, said the police had been harassing them on the basis of information given by Usman Kallapu. She said the police had been harassing her, by asking for information about her younger brother Sadiq. “They (police) come and tell us ‘we know where the boys are.' Why do they come and harass us then?
They (police) tell us they will kill them (Althaf and Illyas). We have not seen or heard from our boys since November 14, because they are too scared to come home,” Ms. Nazeema said.
Accepting a memorandum from the complainants, Mr. Ramesh told them that Illyas and Althaf had cases of extortion filed against them.
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He said the police were doing their duty by looking for people who were wanted for crimes.
Mr. Ramesh told The Hindu that Althaf was wanted in a case of theft while Illyas had a criminal background.
He said both had spent around three months in jail. Soon after they were released on bail, they had allegedly attempted to extort money from Usman.