Hyderabad: A division bench of the Telangana High Court on Tuesday asked the state officials to file their counter affidavits in connection to a case on the Medak custodial death.
The division bench comprising of Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice Tukaramji had issued notices to Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary Home, DGP Telangana, Superintendent of Police-Medak, DySP – Medak and SHO-Medak on Monday and in today’s hearing sought counter-affidavits in connection with the death of Mohammed Khadeer.
In today’s hearing, Additional advocate general J Ramachandra Rao, appearing for the Telangana government contended that the death of the deceased occurred 14 days after the date of his interrogation in a snatching case and as such it cannot be termed a custodial death.
Background of the case:
Telangana HC Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan on Monday took suo-moto cognizance of the case based on a report published by the “The Indian Express Daily” dated 19 February with the caption DEATH OF THEFT ACCUSED IN POLICE CUSTODY”.
The report alleged that one Mohammed Khadeer, died due to the torture meted out to him by officials of the Medak Police Station.
Khadeer was subjected to sustained interrogation under the suspicion that he is an accused in a snatching case.
The suo-motu writ petition says that Khadeer was a daily wage earner in Medak Police Station who was detained on 27 January 2023 at Medak police station. He was interrogated for allegedly snatching a chain from a woman and was grievously injured as a result of the alleged torture and third-degree treatment meted out to him while he was in police custody.
Thereafter he was rushed to the hospital where his health condition deteriorated and Khadeer was declared dead on 16 February 2023 in Gandhi Hospital.
The next hearing of the case has been posted to March 14.
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