A Delhi-based Unani doctor, now lodged in the Naini Central Jail here in the 2005 Ayodhya attack case, has claimed that he was stripped, tortured, and forced to drink urine while in police custody, in the presence of high-ranking officers.
“The [Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force] policemen would pour water into my nose, hanging me upside down, and pour molten wax over my private parts. They would laugh as I cried,” reads the English translation of Dr. Irfan Khan’s open letter to the President.
Dr. Khan, a native of Saharanpur district in Uttar Pradesh, was arrested at Nakud under the Unlawful Activities Act, and various sections of the Indian Penal Code. Dr. Khan was in constant touch with the perpetrators of the attack and was even engaged in several phone conversations with them.
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Pleading innocence, he narrated how it was common in his area to share mobile phones as the devices were not so readily available then. “People had given others’ mobile numbers to their family and relatives to remain connected … If any one of them called, the mobile owner would call the neighbour to receive the call.”
Dr. Khan also talks about the alleged use of abusive and communally derogatory language by STF personnel. While in custody, two others detained along with him were forced to urinate on, and slap, each other, he says.
Despite the torture, his arrest from Saharanpur was shown as a fresh arrest and was facilitated by a ‘fake’ medical certificate issued by the STF, the letter says.
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