Panel seeks report on youth's custodial death in Telangana

The Andhra Pradesh State Minorities Commission has taken serious note of a Muslim youth's death due to alleged torture in police custody in Telangana and has sought reports from the police superintendent and collector.

The commission, which serves both the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, took suo motu cognizance of the death of 25-year-old Shaikh Hyder in One Town police station in Nizamabad town.

Minorities commission chairman Abid Rasool Khan, in a statement here on Monday, said the collector and the superintendent of police of Nizamabad district have been directed to submit the reports on or before April 1.

He said after the receipt of the report, the commission would take necessary steps to do justice to the family of the deceased.

The statement said that the commission learnt that Hyder, a petty trader, was brought to the police station under the guise of inquiry and was tortured.

He died in the police station, and the police claim that he was sent to the government hospital in Nizamabad and was advised to be shifted to Osmania Hospital in Hyderabad is all falsehood, the statement said.

The youth was arrested for his alleged involvement in a case of theft of a cycle on Saturday. The station house officer (SHO) claimed that he tried to escape by climbing the compound wall but sustained injuries and died at a hospital on the same night.

Superintendent of Police S. Chandrasekhar Reddy on Sunday placed the SHO and a head constable under suspension. He also announced a probe into the incident.