’84 riots: HC slams police for inaction

NEW DELHI : While upholding conviction of 89 persons accused of rioting and destroying public property, the Delhi high court on Wednesday slammed the police for its failure to maintain law and order during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots which broke out after the assassination of former prime minister Indira Gandhi. Justice RK Gauba said that the allegations against the police for looking the other way or making endeavour to ensure those guilty could escape are “correct and well founded”.

HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad high court ordered the city police on Wednesday to trace transwoman activist Chandramukhi Muvvala, a candidate from Goshamahal constituency of old Hyderabad who went missing Tuesday.

The judges asked police to produce the 32-year-old activist, who is fighting the December 7 assembly polls as a Bahujan Left Front candidate, in court on Thursday. Her mother filed a petition before the court, which expressed surprise over the missing candidate. “The bench took the issue very seriously. We hope police will bring her before the court tomorrow,” said her lawyer MA Shakeel.

The incident came to light late on Tuesday after a coalition, the Telangana Hijra Intersex Transgender Samiti, released a statement saying it feared Chandramukhi had been kidnapped. The same fear was reiterated in the petition, which said Chandramukhi was “facing several threats for having raised her voice against the violence unleashed on transgenders in the city.”

West Zone deputy commissioner of police AR Srinivas said a close look at CCTV footage revealed she had left her home in Banjara Hills voluntarily.