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Man alleges torture by police in Panjimogaru double-murder inquiry
September 18, 2011
Mangalore, September 18: A rresident of Panjimogaru area of the city has alleged that Panambur police tortured him for four days to force him to say that he had carried out the Panjimogaru double murder of a woman and her daughter.
Speaking from his bed at the Highland Hospital, Musheer (24), said that the police allegedly abused him by meting out cruel treatment. He said he was given only one meal a day, but he could not eat because of the pain. Before being let off on Thursday, he was threatened with an “encounter” if he told anybody about the ordeal, he said.
“They beat me every hour. What sort of inquiry is this? Around 15 people took turns in beating me. Some of them told me that they were doctors, but they too beat me,” Mr. Musheer said. The police kept telling him to “confess” to the double murder, and say that it was Hamid who had paid him to carry it out, he added.
Mr. Musheer said that an officer told him to come to the Panambur police station on September 12 as he “wanted a word” with him. The officer had met him during a visit to the house of Hamid's (the husband of the murdered woman Razya) elder brother where he (Musheer) and his wife were living on rent.
He said that he was taken to the police station from Jokatte in a Maruti 800. When he alighted from the car, the officer took the key of his motorcycle and his mobile phone, he said. On seeing nine men come from behind the police station, Mr. Museheer said that he got scared and started to run. However, the men caught him and took him to a room behind the police station, but in the same compound.
For four days, he was given tea in the morning and a meal with pickle in the afternoon. However, Mr. Musheer said that he could not eat it because of the pain. They also gave him tablets over four days, which he thinks were painkillers.
Meanwhile, reacting to Musheer's claim that police had forced him to confess to carrying out the murder at the behest of Razia's husband, Hamid reiterated that he and the members of his family were ready for any investigation. "We have been repeatedly saying that the we are ready to face even CBI investigation. I have also said that I am ready for narco analysis test," he said.
Reacting to allegations of abuse, Valentine D'Souza, the Inspector of Police, Panambur, said that the police have not tortured him. In fact, he was facing a couple of cases. We have only questioned him in connection with the double murder case. We produced him before the tahsildar and let him off, he claimed.
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