Jammu, May 5, 2011: Policemen in mufti beat up a mentally challenged youth at Nai Basti Morh near the auto-rikshaw stand in Jammu. Instead of helping him to a hospital or uniting him with his family, a group of five to six policemen in civvies thrashed the youth, who was apparently stranded in the area.
An eyewitness said the incident took place around 5 pm on May 5 when the mentally disturbed youth arrived near the auto-rickshaw stand and started fiddling with the motorcycle of a policeman standing nearby. The group of policemen, without inquiring anything from the youth, started beating him in full public view.
The motorcycle of the policeman was supposedly bearing a chassis registration number CH 2507 with word khauf (sic) denoting terror in red colour on the number plate. While the police was thrashing the youth, the one media reporting team incidentally reached the spot and took photographs of the policemen in action. In a jiffy, the cops bundled the youth into an auto-rickshaw and drove him to Gandhi Nagar police station.
Asked about the matter, the policemen claimed, “He attacked us with a stone. We are policemen and he is being taken to Gandhi Nagar police station”. The frightened youth, however, did not say anything. Curiously enough, neither a case was registered against the youth nor was he admitted to hospital. He was set free and was again spotted roaming in the locality after half an hour.
However, the passersby raised serious concern over the police highhandedness. “The youth was not violent. As a matter of duty, they should have taken him to police station and, if necessary, registered a relevant case against him,” they said.
The passersby added, “The incident reflects policemen consider themselves above law”. A little later, some of the same policemen stopped a teenager, who was riding a motorcycle. While they intimidated the erring teenager, an overenthusiastic policeman slapped his 12-year-old friend publicly.
Thereafter, a patrol party came and the teenager was pushed into the police vehicle. TNS