The Telangana Police on Wednesday ordered an investigation after a video of a constable kicking a man whose teenaged daughter allegedly died by suicide the previous day started doing the rounds, the Hindustan Times reported. The video, shot in Patancheru town of Sangareddy district, showed a constable kicking the girl’s father, who was purportedly trying to prevent the police from taking his daughter’s body for a postmortem examination.
Police said the girl, a student of Class 11, was found hanging in the washroom of her hostel on Tuesday. The junior college’s authorities admitted her to a private hospital, where doctors declared her dead on arrival. The girl’s family has alleged that she had been suffering from a fever for the past week but the institute’s authorities refused to send her home or provide treatment. The teenager’s father has registered a complaint of negligence against the institute’s management.
The girl’s father tried to intervene when the police were taking the minor’s body to the mortuary for a postmortem examination, police said. The video showed the minor’s father holding constable N Sridhar’s feet, and pleading with him to leave his daughter’s body alone. The family of the girl, along with a few students union leaders, staged a protest on Wednesday morning, demanding that the body be taken to the junior college to seek the management’s explanation, reported Telangana Today.
“The girl committed suicide day before yesterday [Tuesday],” Superintendent of Police, Sangareddy district, Chandana Deepti, told The Indian Express. “Her body was in the mortuary and some agitators, some kith and kin of hers, broke the glass of mortuary today and tried to take the body to the main road to possibly stop the traffic. Police tried to bring it back and in the process, her father tried to obstruct police. One of the policemen seems to have kicked him. The video has been examined and action has been initiated.”
Justifying the police action, Deepti said the officials were trying to prevent the protestors from taking the law into their hands. She added: “We shall suspend him [Sridhar] if proven guilty.” The senior police officer further claimed that protestors pelted stones and verbally abused the police.
Meanwhile, the autopsy was done at a government hospital Following which, the girl’s family refused to accept her body without a compensation from the institute’s authorities, reported The Hindu. Late on Wednesday night, the junior college reportedly agreed to pay a compensation of Rs 15 lakh. The relatives then took the girl to her native place for the final rites.
KT Rama Rao, the working president of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, retweeted a video of the incident and said: “Will take it to the notice and request Home Minister Mahmood Ali Saab and Telangana DGP Garu to review the insensitive handling by these policemen. Showing empathy in times of grief such as this is the basic courtesy that is expected of government officials.”
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