PIL against ‘police atrocities’ in Ullal

Police say the timing of the Maulvi’s admission into hospital is ‘suspicious’

In the police sweep-up and patrolling of the affected areas of Ullal, a teacher of a Madrasa at Kodi claims to have been thrashed by the police.

With numerous complaints such as this reaching the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), the organisation said it would conduct a fact-finding mission and plans to file a PIL in the High Court against atrocities by police who swarmed Ullal following unrest on Wednesday.

Recuperating at a hospital in the city on Sunday, Atoor Hamid Musliyar (41) claimed that he was headed home on Thursday night after finishing prayers at Badriya Masjid, when a police sub-inspector assaulted him. “Before that a few other police personnel had asked me what I was doing. I told them I’m a maulvi and I was returning home. They had let me go. But the woman sub-inspector suddenly struck me on my right foot, and then the other policemen joined in assaulting me,” he said.

For the next two days, with the prohibitory orders enforced there, he said he waited out in the house writhing with pain. Mr. Musliyar suffered a fracture on his foot, and has had two stitches at the back of his head.

Kabir Ullal, vice president of the district unit of PUCL, said numerous complaints of police atrocities, including knocking down locked-doors, switching on television sets and gas stoves in empty houses were heard during visits to 35 houses in the area.

“We will collect the information, and after a discussion with the Police Commissioner, we will take it up as a PIL against police atrocities in the High Court,” he said.

Asserting that the timing of the Maulvi’s admission into the hospital was “suspicious”, Deputy Commissioner of Police K.V. Jagadish said there were no complaints so far against police action.