Court deputes docs to Nerella
HC wants team from Warangal to examine victims of cop assault
The Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday directed the Telangana state government to send a team of two doctors from the MGM Hospital at Warangal to Vemulawada, where the victims of Nerella violence are undergoing the treatment in a private hospital.
A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice J. Uma Devi was dealing with a PIL filed by Civil Liberties Committee president Gaddam Lakshman seeking an inquiry either by the CBI or a Special Investigation Team into the alleged brutal torture of eight persons belonging to Dalit and Backward Classes communities by the police at Nerella in Sircilla district.
The bench ordered the principal secretary, home, to ensure that the doctors examine the injuries sustained by the villagers and ensure that the victims were shifted to the Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences at Hyderabad if they doctors felt it was necessary.
The bench told the government to file a report on August 16.
Detailing the incidents leading to the alleged police torture of the victims, Mr V. Raghunath, counsel for the petitioner, said the villagers of Nerella, Jillela and Ramachandrapuram were vexed with the transportation of illegally mined sand through their villages. They were enraged after a sand-laden lorry rammed into a two-wheeler, killing a person named Bhumaiah on the spot on the outskirts of Nerella on July 2.
They staged a protest on July 3 by stopping the trucks carrying sand. The protest turned violent when the police tried to thrash the villagers.
He said that the police arrested certain individuals identified as Penta Banaiah, Gandham Gopal, Chepyala Bala Raju, Kola Harish, Pasula Eshwar Kumar, Cheekoti Srinivas, Korukanti Ganesh, and Bathula Mahesh on the charges of burning sand-laden trucks at Nerella on July 3.
He said the arrested persons were produced in a court on July 8 and released on conditional bail on August 2.
He alleged that all the eight were subjected to brutal torture almost five days which resulted in damaging their reproductive organs.
TS Advocate-General D. Prakash Reddy said a fact-finding committee of PUCL visited the alleged victims on July 18 and they were moving the court.
He said that the government was prepared to provide treatment for the victims at MGM hospital in Warangal.
The bench said, “We feel that shifting the victims to Nims is better if necessary because it had super specialty facilities.”
When counsel for the petitioner urged the court to send forensic experts along with the doctors, the bench said “their first priority is to see that victims get better treatment. If necessary the forensic experts will also be sent.”