Hyderabad: Minor wife, major crime: 21-year-old detained illegally for four days
Hyderabad: Allegations have surfaced that the Karkhana police have kept a 21-year-old person in their custody illegally for more than four days, without sending him to judicial custody. Police have been circumventing the procedures laid down by law in producing the accused before a magistrate, family members claimed on Monday in the city.
E. Danaiha, a traumatised 45-year-old father of the accused, and a farmer by profession, who lives in Ramancha village under the Siddipet district told Deccan Chronicle, “I got to know that police took my son on Thursday evening. I rushed to the city and the police station to see my son. On Friday morning, at around 9 am, I reached Karkhana police station. Throughout the day, I kept trying to meet my son, in vain. I waited till 4 pm at the police station to see him. I also tried to meet the inspector to find out details of why he was arrested. I couldn’t meet my son as he was in police custody. I tried to meet the inspector of police over the issue but he didn’t give me time to meet him.”
The father of the 21-year-old youth illegally detained at Karkhana police left for their village as they had no money to stay in the city.
On Sunday, when this reporter contacted P. Madhukar Swamy, inspector, Karkana police, he confirmed that the accused was sent to judicial custody a day before (on Saturday itself). However, when this reporter went to the police station the next day (on Monday) at around 1.10 pm, the accused was still in police custody. When the DC reporter asked to meet the inspector, he was directed to other police staff, because the “inspector was busy in a meeting”.
When the reporter went inside a room, four policemen were sitting in the room. When asked about Anil, the illegally detained accused, the policemen replied that they don’t know about him.
Suddenly, a person who was sitting on a bench in the room raised his hand to show our reporter that he was the accused, E. Anil. When he tried to talk to the reporter, the policemen asked the reporter to leave the room and speak to the inspector, as “he knew all the details”.
This reporter took a picture of the accused at police station while he was still in police custody as proof of the illegal detention.
Further, going into case details, Anil, a 21-year-old, had married a minor a year ago, the police officer claimed. According to the family of the accused, the girl was a major and had reportedly eloped with the accused in March last year. Later, she married him of her volition and stayed with him for nearly a year.
On the occasion of Sankranti, the accused, along with his wife, perhaps a minor, came to the city. Subsequently, the allegedly minor girl went to her parental home in Nacharam.
A day after, the girl’s father approached the Karkhana police, alleging that his daughter had been kidnapped, forced to marry him and had been physically abused.
During the course of time, police got to know that the girl was a minor and the marriage didn’t happen as per the Hindu Act, and concluded that the alleged marriage was void. Following which, the accused was booked under the POCSO Act, besides a rape and kidnap case.
When this reporter contacted A. Vinod Kumar, assistant commissioner of police, Mahankali police, he said, “We have arrested the accused in a rape case and sent him to judicial custody. We refrained from giving more details as the investigation is underway.”
When asked about the illegal detention, he disconnected the call.
