Hyderabad: A sobbing ex-serviceman, disconsolate over his daughter’s suicide at a college hostel and protesting that justice was not being done, was kicked by a policeman Sridhar Reddy (PC349) when he tried to prevent them from taking her body to the Patancheru Area Hospital mortuary on Wednesday.
A video of the incident went viral and raised criticism of the ‘friendly policing’ initiative promoted by the Telangana state police.
The girl, S Sandhya Rani (16), was from Yenugonda village in the Jadcherla mandal of Mahabubnagar district. Her father S. Cha-ndrashekar is an ex-serviceman and her mother Padma is a homemaker.
Sandhya was studying intermediate first-year course at Narayana Jun-ior College at Velimela in Sangareddy district. She committed suicide by han-ging herself in the hostel bathroom on Tuesday.
Sandhya was not well for a week and the college management gave her medicine. However, she did not recover and called her parents, asking them to visit on Saturday (on other days, they would not be allowed).
On Tuesday at noon, the girl hanged herself from the geyser’s pipe. Other students alerted the staff and she was rushed to a hospital in Nallagandla, but was declared brought dead.
On learning of her death Chandrashekhar lodged a complaint with the BDL Banur police station alleging the negligence by the college management that led Sandhya to end her life. A case was registered against the college management and the body shifted for postmortem.
On Wednesday, a number of relatives and activ-ists of student organisations arrived at the hospital and staged a protest, demanding justice and immediate action against the management. Sudde-nly, a group barged into the mortuary and broke open the freezer box. They took it to the main road and laid a roadblock.
A police team at the spot brought the body back. Chandrasekhar lay down in front of the gate. One of the four policemen kicked Chandrasekhar and dragged him away. Using force, the police dispersed the gathering and returned the body to the mortuary. A video was captured in which a weak Chandrasekhar who was holding the freezer’s handle tightly is seen saying, “Kick me, kill me, kill me.”
Sangareddy in-charge Superintendent of Police, Medak SP G. Chandana Deepti said, “An inquiry has been ordered and the constable who manhandled the ex-serviceman was repatriated to district police headquarters.”
Police also registered cases against the protesters for damaging hospital property and taking the body from the mortuary freezer.
