Lawyer moves NHRC against Andhra Pradesh cops

Chennai: A lawyer from Chennai has approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) against the Andhra Pradesh police, accusing them of building up fake red sanders smuggling cases against people from Tamil Nadu.

The petitioner claimed that the AP police had been violating all human rights norms and making people languish in jail for months. These detentions do not follow the guidelines prescribed by the Supreme Court, according to the petitioner.

In his petition, lawyer S. Zakir Hussain alleged that hundreds of people from Tamil Nadu are lodged in prisons in Kadapa, Chittoor, Nellore, Kurnool, and Rajahmundry for several months without even getting mandatory legal assistance.

“I had the occasion to visit the Rly Kodur judicial magistrate court’s in Kadapa district recently. I was shocked to see very large numbers of people from Tamil Nadu being produced for extension of remand in connection with red sander smuggling cases,” the lawyer said in his petition.

Andhra Pradesh police authorities had been acting in violation of the established procedure of law and had been committing a violation of human rights while apprehending them, says Hussain, who runs a trust named Rights Awareness Organisation in Chennai.

“Thereafter, I had managed see one chargesheet that had been filed before the Vth additional district munsif magistrate, Tirupati. There were as many as 430 persons implicated in crime No. 179/2013.

Of the total 430 persons, nearly 400 persons are from Tamil Nadu,” said the petitioner. These persons were brought from Tamil Nadu for employment as labourers, but the Andhra Pradesh police, for statistical purposes, had been implicating them as accused.

Citing a specific case of Muraliraj, a native of Dharmapuri district, the lawyer says that his entire right hand is inactive because of a paralytic attack.

“However, the Renigunta police have registered a case against him as if he was involved in the cutting of red sanders wood,” Hussain claimed in his petition to the NHRC.

He also alleged that the AP police had been killing innocent persons, mainly workers from TN, under the guise of searching for sandalwood smugglers.