When cops behaved worse than rioters - By Zeeshan Shaikh - Free Press Journal, Mumbai

http://fpj.co.in/news/81772-When-cops-behaved-worse-than-rioters.html



When cops behaved worse than rioters

26- year- old Abbas Ujjainwala was picked up by cops for no rhyme or reason and seven of his teeth knocked out. Later, CCTV footage established he was in Kurla at the times riots erupted at Azad Maidan.

ZEESHAN SHAIKH Mumbai

 

On August 11, it was not just the rioters who behaved like hooligans but the law enforcers too behaved like rioters, going on mindless rampage of their own and breaking seven teeth of a young boy who wasn't even part of the riots.

The Rapid Action Force allegedly beat up 26- year- old Abbas Ujjainwala on the night of August 11 when he went to Azad Maidan looking for a friend. Abbas, who was at home when the riots took place early in the evening, had gone to Azad Maidan at 9: 30 PM after the riots stopped, to look for his friend who hadn't returned from the protest meet.

On seeing him, the RAF men thrashed him with batons, knocking out seven of his teeth. He was arrested and, incidentally, acquitted by the court on Tuesday. A CCTV installed in Taxi Mens Colony, Kurla, where he resides, came to his rescue. The footage showed Ujjainwala shopping near his house at the time vandals were wreaking havoc at Azad Maidan.

'I was in the colony when the riots erupted. At 9.30 PM, I was at Azad Maidan searching for a friend when the police apprehended me. They thrashed me, broke my teeth and hit me hard on the head.

I was arrested even though I told them I was not part of the protest,'Ujjainwala said, who is hardly able to speak.

'How can the police first beat up a person and later pronounce him innocent?'exclaimed Hussain Ujjainwala, father of Abbas.

 

Apart from Abbas, three more acquitted youth were allegedly beaten black and blue by the RAF and the Arthur Road Jail authorities before being set free nearly 14 days later.

All the 23 accused, who were acquitted owing to lack of evidence, were to be sent for an immediate medical check up after Advocate Khalid Azmi filed an application on Saturday on behalf of their family members stating that they d were beaten up in Arthur Road Jail.

However, the police have still not sent the acquitted and the accused for medical check up.

Further, Abbas claimed he was verbally abused and threatened by the Arthur Road Jail authorities. 'I was beaten up in such a manner that they left no visible injuries on my body. 

They mostly assaulted us with punches and kicks,'Abbas added.

FPJ had first reported Abbass torturous ordeal on Monday. However, when Deputy Police Commissioner, Nisar Tamboli, was called for the police version, he said he was unaware of the incident and asked us to contact crime branch officials. Additional Police Commissioner Niket Kaushik was unavailable for comment.

Another acquitted youth, Anees Dawaray ( 23), a garage mechanic, also claims the police at Arthur road jail beat him up. Aslam Ali Shaikh ( 19), a FYBcom student at MD College in Dadar, who was also wrongly picked up by the police on the eve of the riots, has a harrowing account to narrate.

'Immediately after releasing me from Taloja jail on Tuesday, I had to be rushed to a private nursing home for dressing of wounds. I can barely walk. They beat me on my legs with a stick at Arthur Jail road,'said a visibly shaken Shaikh.

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Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai adds: The torture of the innocents arrested by Mumbai police was widely reported by Mumbai's Urdu Press, without Police, Government or English media taking any note. A court plea was filed and all the victimised prisioners were asked to be presented in court. Mumbai police caught on wrong foot, tried to save their faces, shifted them to far off Taloja and delayed presenting them in court for 3 days, till the judge came heavily agianst them. They then had no choice, but to free some who had suffered the most and could have resulted in court hauling the police to prosecute the torturers.