DCP orders enquiry into cops' assault on designer, techie

A day after DH reported how a visual designer and a software engineer were beaten up by the police who mistook them for pickpockets, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) has ordered an enquiry into the incident.

"I have sought details of the petty cases registered against the two men from the station house officer and have ordered an enquiry into the incident," M B  Boralingaiah, DCP (Southeast),  told DH  on Wednesday.  

On November 12, police had picked up Khaja Mohideen (34), the visual designer,  and Senthil Nathan (43), the techie, from  Mangammanapalya, Hosur Road, after a resident suspected that they were pickpockets.  The police didn't listen to the duo even after they produced their work IDs. They thrashed them,  made them write an apology and released them only after slapping petty cases on them. The men had to cough up Rs 600 as fine and a bribe of Rs 400.  

Meanwhile, lawyers from the nonprofit Alternative Law Forum (ALF), who went through the men's  complaint to the Karnataka  State Human Rights Commission, have applied for documents such as the apology letters and details of the petty cases registered at the Bandeplaya police station, under the Right To Information (RTI) Act. "A policeman hit  Nathan on the head several times and kicked him with a boot in the abdomen, though the latter has no visible injury marks. Mohideen was slapped on the head and beaten on the left leg below the knee with a cane. He has swelling which has been documented," R Kaleemulla, an activist with the NGO Movement for Justice, told DH.