A relative of a person arrested in connection with communal violence that broke out in Haryana’s Nuh district earlier this year has alleged that seven Muslim inmates were assaulted by jail staff on December 11, reported The Indian Express.
The relative has moved an application before the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking action against the police, who have said that the allegations are baseless.
On July 31, a clash had broken out between Hindus and Muslims in Nuh during the Brij Mandal Jalabhishek Yatra, a religious procession organised by the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. The violence soon spread beyond Nuh, with neighbouring the Gurugram district, in particular, witnessing widespread arson and mob attacks on Muslim homes and shops.
One of the Muslim men arrested in connection with the violence is Shokeen, whose father Khurshid said that when he visited him in prison on December 13 and found him in a “severely injured state”.
In an application to the court, Khurshid said that when he asked Shokeen about his condition, he said that four to five police officers beat him and other inmates, according to The Indian Express.
“This was captured by the jail’s CCTV cameras, which also revealed that the prison’s STD facility was shut down,” the application said. “The staff forced Shokeen and other inmates into the prison’s flour mill where they were tortured, and were not provided any medical attention.”
The Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court in Nuh ordered a medical inspection of the inmates on Saturday, five days after the alleged incident took place. In response, the medical superintendent of the civil hospital in Mandikhera who examined them said that the accused had sustained minor injuries and their medico-legal case was done at the hospital.”
In a statement to the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court in Nuh, the jail superintendent said that Shokeen and his fellow inmates Rahul, Mouinudeen, Imtiyaz, Sohail and two of them named Imran “refused to be counted with the other inmates and behaved disrespectfully with the deployed officers”.
The statement said that the inmates insisted on being shifted back to the special ward.
“They continued to misbehave with the administration, leading to disciplinary action,” it said. “As a consequence, they were ordered to remain in the security ward until further notice, ensuring jail discipline is maintained and peace prevails.”
The superintendent claimed that “no jail staff/officer has verbally abused or physically assaulted the inmates” and that they are being provided with adequate medical attention.
These allegations were brought to the attention of the Haryana Legislative Assembly on Tuesday by Nuh MLA Aftab Ahmed who sought an investigation by a retired High Court judge.
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