Cheating case accused alleges custodial torture, OU police deny allegations

A 31-year-old man’s allegations that he was picked up from Delhi and flown in to Hyderabad before being subjected to torture inside Osmania University police station in a cheating case raised questions about the investigative procedures adopted by Telangana Police.

While Thumma Aditya charged that he was beaten black and blue inside the police station, the OU police flatly denied the same, maintaining that they did not violate any provision of law. Aditya maintained that a team of policemen, led by Sub-Inspector Karunakar, and accompanied by a civilian Venugopal, turned up at his rented place in Noida on the evening of November 5.

He claimed the police handcuffed him, alleging that he was involved in a case of stealing gold. His mobile phone was seized. “No papers were shown for the reasons, and no seizure memo formalities were followed,” said Chilla Ramesh, a practicing advocate of Telangana High Court.

“The ‘accused’ was driven to Telangana Bhavan in New Delhi, where he was chained to a bed in a room. He was handcuffed till the airport,” the advocate claimed. They reached OU police station by 6 a.m. on November 6. Around noon the same day, his mother Sujatha approached the advocate.

“I spoke with SI Karunakar, who said if Sujatha comes to the police station, Aditya would be let off with notices related to the case registered,” lawyer Ramesh narrated. The police, however, allegedly abused the mother and the son in filthy language and made Aditya sign promissory notes and a video confession that he would return ₹30 lakh to the complainants in the cheating case, the lawyer alleged.

The mother and son were set free late on the night of November 6. The next day, Aditya got himself examined at Gandhi hospital. The medical report suggested he had swellings on his limbs. SI Karunakar however vehemently denied the charge of violence. “The accused had cheated some persons to the tune of lakhs of rupees. We flew to Delhi to pick him up. Since we were bringing him to Hyderabad within 24 hours, we did not inform Delhi police about his arrest,” the SI said.

Advocate Ramesh said that police had no right to torture and violate the law on the pretext of investigating a cheating case. “In how many cheating cases are the police sending teams to far-off places like Delhi, that too by flight, to pick up an accused?”, he wondered.