Amaravati: Shaik Hazeera, a 30-year-old Muslim woman of Rayachoti in Andhra Pradesh’ YSR Kadapa district, is waging a spirited battle against the police and her harassers allegedly backed by the local YSRC lawmaker.
The police framed Hazeera, an anganwadi worker, in a case by the local police, charging her with criminal conspiracy—punishable with death under section-120 (B) —along with the several other sections of the IPC.
A video she posted on facebook , narrating how she was being harassed by the followers of the MLA with an appeal to Chief Minister Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy to come to her rescue apparently incurred the wrath of the police. The video showed her asking whether it is fair and appropriate on the part of the police to invoke conspiracy charges against her for posting a video on the facebook. She said she had to take to the social media to explain her version on the social media posts of the lawmaker’s followers assassinating her character.
“The son of the local market yard chairman has been harassing me with sexual advances. When I resisted, the harasser and his men indulged in character assassination against me.
Arbitrary action
The police failed to act on my complaint, but arbitrarily slapped a conspiracy case against me”, Hazeera, a divorcee, told this writer.
Subsequently, the anganwadi centre where Hazeera works was set on fire a few days later. And, her house was raided and her family members were manhandled by unknown persons. Hazeera suspects the hand of the market yard chairman, a key follower of the lawmaker and his son behind the arson. The police failed to respond on the excess of the market yard chairman, she alleges.
Hazeera moved the Andhra Pradesh High Court and got a stay, restraining the police from proceeding against her in the case. “In the meantime, there shall be interim stay of all further proceedings as the offences punishable under the 500, 501, 120 (B) & 506 are all non-cognizable offences and police cannot register the crime for the said offences—), high court judge Justice M. Satyanarayana observed in his ruling on October 1. As the stay was in force for two weeks since the date of its granting by the court, Hazeera fears the police may arrest her at any time.
Fearing loss of job
In the meantime, Hazeera received a show-cause notice from the district Collector through the Project Director, Women and Child Welfare department asking why she should not be removed from job on grounds of “dereliction of duties”.
The charges framed against her in the show-cause notice include diversion of food material from her Anganwadi centre, absconding from duties, failure to produce 90 percent attendance of children in 3-6 years age group at the centre, among others.
Hazeera is feeding her aged mother and supporting education for her two sons with a monthly allowance of Rs 10,000 which she earns as an Anganwadi teacher. She suspects that the MLA at the instance of her harassers is behind the Collector’s show-cause notice to remove her from the job.
“I will find it very difficult to feed my family without the job”, Hazeera lamented