Image Credit: AP
By Mohammad Siddique
Hyderabad: The suicide of a muslim family due to police harassment and torture in Nandyal town of Andhra Pradesh has kicked up a political storm even as two policemen were arrested in connection with the horrendous incident.
Before the family of four jumped in front of a moving train near Panyam they recorded a video holding policemen of Nandyal station responsible for their suicide.
Initially the incident was treated as a suicide due to economic hardship but later the video left behind by the family emerged.
The bodies of Abdul Salam, his wife Noor Jehan, teenage daughter Salma and 9 year old son Dada Kalandar were found on the tracks by the local police.
The video has sparked widespread anger in Nandyal towns and people are demanding justice for the family. While Abdul Salam was an employee in a local jewelry shop, his wife was a private school teacher.
Stolen gold
According to the relatives of Abdul Salam his travails started earlier this year when the shop owner lodged a complaint with the police alleging that he had stolen gold jewelry from the shop.
Narrating his tales of woes Salam said in the video that he was subjected to torture and later remanded to judicial custody. But the police continued tormenting him even after he came out of jail on bail. During his monthly visits to the police station he would be abused severely and the policemen would mock him.
After coming out on bail he had started driving an auto rickshaw but his misfortune continued to haunt him as police booked a second case of theft against him. It was alleged that he had stolen a bag of one of his passengers.
In the video message Salam denied the charges of theft in both the cases and said that he was falsely implicated in the case.
In the video which Salam recorded along with his wife and children, he said “I have nothing to do with the theft in shop or auto. I am unable to bear the torture. We have no one to help us. I hope that at least our death will bring peace of mind”. He alleged that the police had taken away the family’s jewelry from their home.
Fast tracked
As the public outcry grew, Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy constituted a high level committee of two senior IPS officers to probe the incident. Two policemen named by Abdul Salam in video, Nandyal police inspector Somasekhara Reddy and constable Gangadhar have been arrested. A case of abetment of suicide and under many other sections was booked against them.
Even as the Chief Minister announced that the investigation in the case will be fast tracked, the opposition Telugu Desam party has alleged that incidents of police harassment of Muslims had increased in the state under YSR Congress rule.
“The visuals of the mutilated bodies of Nandyal’s Abdul Salam and his family scattered across railway tracks have shaken the conscience of every citizen in AP. The Salam family was pushed to suicide due to systematic oppression and police brutality. All protocols of humanity were broken to implicate Abdul Salam in a theft case which he did not commit”, TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu said alleging that this was not one off incident.
“The YSRCP government had turned Andhra Pradesh into a tyrannical state where citizens are vulnerable to violence and authorities act with impunity without fear of law”, he said
This story was first appeared on gulfnews.com