Cops faulted for harassing couple

By S A Ishaqui

Hyderabad,July 13: Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, on Monday, pulled up the police for their alleged harassment of a couple in Nagari town of Chittoor district.

The judge sought to know whether the police thought that the uniform was a licence for them to harass people. He posed a series of questions to the circle inspector and sub-inspector of Nagari police station. Both the officers appeared before the judge pursuant to an earlier order issued by the judge.

The judge was dealing with a petition filed by one Mr M.R. Ganesh Raja and his wife Ms M.G. Gayatri Devi, along with their relative Mr V.R. Sankara Narayana seeking protection from these two policemen. The petitioners alleged that the police was harassing them daily at the behest of one S. Subrahmanyam, a business man.

According to the petitioners, the businessman earlier lodged a case of stealing against them. They told the court that when Mr Ganesh Raja was illegally detained by the police, Mr Sankara Narayana filed a Habeus Corpus petition in the High Court.

They said that since then the police was harassing Mr Sankara Narayana and Ms Gayatri Devi. They submitted to the court that even after the fingerprints bureau gave a clean chit to them, the police continued to harass them. The judge asked the police officers why they avoided mentioning a key issue like fingerprints bureau report which gave the couple a clean chit.