Book policemen under SC/ST Act: Meira

Karimnagar: Strongly condemning the brutal atrocities on Dalits and BCs by police, former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar demanded that all guilty policemen be booked under Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. She also demanded a judicial enquiry into the Nerella incident. “We had seen several dreams about Telangana. We expected Telangana to be a State where there would be no atrocities on Dalits, Adivasis, BCs, minorities or other section. But I was in extreme pain when I was told about the Nerella incident.

I could not control my tears,” the Congress leader said at a press conference after she visited the Karimnagar District Jail where she met four out of eight alleged victims of police torture. She was accompanied by Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President Capt N Uttam Kumar Reddy and other party leaders. Ms Meira Kumar said that the victims broke down while narrating the police brutality. They were brutally beaten up and given electric shocks. She said that she was allowed to meet only four out of seven victims lodged in the jail while one more person is undergoing treatment in the hospital. She said that the victims were ordinary citizens belonging to SC and BC communities who were subjected to brutal torture for five days. She claimed that the victims had suffered internal injuries like damage to kidneys and ribs.

“I could not control my tears after hearing their stories. Is it India? Are we living in 2017?” she asked. The former Lok Sabha Speaker said that the sand mafia has completely established its domination in the region. “Have we formed a separate State for Sand Mafia? They are over-loading and over-speeding their trucks. They don’t care about people getting killed or injured in accidents. One sarpanch told me that five people were killed in accidents in his village. But no FIR was issued, no compensation was paid and no contract was cancelled,” she said.