TPCC Chief Uttam Kumar Reddy on Monday said that they will be staging a protest on 31July in Rajanna-Sircilla condemning the atrocities against Dalits and Backward Castes by the Telangana Police officials. He said that there is no place for human rights in the TRS government’s rule.
Speaking at meeting in Gandhi Bhavan, he said that the Sircilla incident is a disgrace to the society. He accused KTR’s relative’s involvement in the sand mafia and said that the Sircilla police are behaving at their will. He questioned that if the government has no involvement, why has it not yet taken any action against the police officers yet.
It may be noted that a 60-year-old Bhumaiah, was killed in an accident by a speeding lorry at Ramachandrapuram in Thangallapalli mandal. As many as 4people were reportedly killed in just one month by the lorries carrying sand due to rash driving. The death of Bhumaiah a native of Narella and an ST(Errukala) on 2July added fuel to the fire. A large number of villagers congregated and set ablaze the lorry carrying sand illegally. During the remonstration, police personnel who wanted to pacify the protestors were reportedly injured.
Two days after the incident on the night of 4July, police detained eight accused who participated in the incident. The accused Penta Banaiah, Gandham Gopal, Chepyala Bala Raju, Kola Harish, Pasula Eshwar Kumar, Cheekoti Srinivas, Korukanti Ganesh and Bathula Mahesh belonged to Nerella, Jillela and Ramachandrapur villages. Police officials not only registered three false cases under IPC 307 against the victims, but also allegedly shifted them to a secret location and beat them black and blue. The victims reportedly underwent a third-degree torture for five days.
The opposition party Congress alleged that the victims were tortured so dreadfully that even the Jailor refused to admit them, instead referred them to the hospital. BJP and TPCC said that Rajanna-Sircilla SP Vishwajit Kampati threatened the victims not to testify before the magistrate. In case otherwise he terrorized them that they would register brothel and ganja smuggling cases against the women in their households.
As per the opposition party leader, both the villages are panic struck and there is a “fear of life and liberty”. Uttam tweeted that “the youth between 18 to 40 years have not returned to village till date due to fear of police – their torture & implication in false cases.”
BJP and Congress have been asking that the State government to suspend SP Vishwajit, CCS sub-inspector B Ravinder and 18 other police constables. Uttam demanded that cases against the victims be withdrawn and cases be filed under Section 307, SC/ST Atrocities Prevention Act and other relevant sections against the police. He also necessitated the State Government to order a probe into the incident through a sitting judge of High Court.
The DGP allegedly failed to respond to the complaint lodge, so they have approached the State Human Rights Commission.
The local MLA K T Rama Rao who represents Sircilla neither visited the village nor responded on the incident. Reportedly, the MPs and TRS Dalit legislators did not make it react either.
Uttam Kumar has penned an open letter to Chief Minister K Chandra shekar Rao demanding action.
