BANGALORE, June 28;What are the chances of you being beaten up by the police when you’re having tea at midnight on M.G. Road? Ask Surendra N.
It will be a long time before the 37-year-old puts Wednesday’s experience behind him.
After watching a late-night movie on Bellary Road, he boarded a bus to M.G. Road to catch a connecting bus to Majestic en route to his house in Vijayanagar.
When he failed to get one, he stopped by a tea vendor on a bicycle who was serving the hot brew to four young men on two motorcycles. He had barely begun sipping his tea when two police officials arrived on a motorcycle, prompting the vendor and the youths to flee. The police then turned to Mr. Surendra and asked what he was doing there at that hour. Though he gave them his particulars and showed them the movie and bus tickets, the policemen took him to the Ulsoor police station and allegedly beat him up.
Petty case too
Showing his swollen fingers, Mr. Surendra alleged that sub-inspector Dhananjay Kumar and constable Prasanna Kumar hit him on his hands with a lathi. “They also stamped my hands. When I demanded to know why I was being beaten up, they booked a petty case against me and asked me to pay a fine.”
Though Mr. Surendra refused to pay up, others who had been rounded up in a similar fashion paid for him and all were allowed to leave.
Mr. Surendra, a postgraduate engineer, was teaching in an evening college in the city till recently when he decided to quit and engage in social work. He is presently the vice-president of the Mandya unit of the Karnataka Krishi Koolikarara Sangha.
On Thursday, he lodged a police complaint with the Deputy Commissioner of Police (East Division).
CPM writes to Mirji
Condemning the incident, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Karnataka State Committee, wrote to the Police Commissioner urging him to suspend the police officials involved.
An official at the Ulsoor Police Station, who refused to be named, claimed that Mr. Surendra was taken to task as he was “misbehaving with hijras”. Mr. Surendra strongly refuted the police allegation.
