Saga of two students of Hyderabad Central University who were humiliated by police over beard
By Bidyut Sagar & Diwakar Upadhyay for TwoCircles.net,
My friend Diwakar Upadhyay and I were entangled in an event on December 18 late evening. Should I say it was ‘educational’; I do not know. But, yes, we got some advices not to keep long beard. Following is what Diwakar said, in his words. I’ve just added a section on what we ‘learnt’ more afterward in the police station and what we wish to do on the basis of it.
Read Bidyut’s original FB post here
Since I’m too confused and diffident to be part of any ultra radical political outfit, which I can run to avenge the humiliation and since I’m no Franz Kafka who might have transformed this nightmarish incident into some surreal literary piece, what follows below is the plainest details of what happened today at the Lingampally crossroad, auto stand and in RC Puram Police Station Chandanagar, Hyderabad:
“The Police slaps me because I have beard and I look like a MUSLIM”
-Diwakar Upaddhay, PhD Research Scholar of University of Hyderabad. (Courtesy: FB-Mahmud Hassan
We (I and Bidyut) were detained by some policemen who dragged us to the above-mentioned police station. A policeman slapped me on the face and both of us were subjected to humiliating kind of interrogation. What invited the slap and the interrogation? Bidyut’s taking photos near a cobbler’s shop and my beard, which confused and irked the policeman whether I could be from some Islamic terrorist group.
Actually, I had given my sandal to the cobbler to mend it and while she was mending it, I was standing there and talking to her. Meanwhile, Bidyut was taking photos of things which were nearby the shop. Seeing this, a policeman came to us and started asking why were we clicking photos? Who were we? and so on. Bidyut explained that it was his hobby to practice photography. I explained that we study at the University of Hyderabad and showed him my identity card. Still suspicious and unconvinced, the policeman in white uniform pointed to my beard and asked ‘Why did I grow a beard?’ and ‘Whether I am a Musilm?’ and other irritating questions.
Somehow he left us but before he did so, he advised us not to take photos at and around what he called public places. Relieved at the fact that he had finally left us, I took my sandal from the cobbler who almost whispered that these policemen were very cruel and rude people and through wrong means made money that might be double the amount they officially earn as salary.
After this scene, which retrospectively proved to be a mere trailer, we headed to the nearby auto-stand and sat in an auto-rickshaw to go to the university campus. As the auto-driver was waiting for some more passengers, the policeman who had left us a few minutes ago again came back with more policemen, a couple of whom weren’t even in police uniform. These plain clothed policemen first forced us to come out of the auto-rickshaw and then almost snatched the camera and went through all the photos in it. Finding nothing “sensitive and threatening” to the existence of I don’t know what, they rummaged our bags but were disappointed to find nothing but some books and a few clothes. Again, they asked us to produce our ID cards and cross-examined us regarding our genealogies – native places, religious identity and so on.
Finding this a humiliating experience, we protested their behavior and I asked them why was it that they were treating us like that despite the fact that we had showed them our ID cards and explained the other details? Response: another tight slap on my face by one of the plain clothes policemen. After this, I couldn’t think of anything for the next few minutes, so we kept standing in that posture at the auto-stand. When we made the second move to take the auto to reach the university, we were again detained by the same goon-like policemen without uniform who dragged us to the police station. There, a person sitting in a comfortable chair uncouthly played with the camera and made almost casual remarks whether we were roaming around that area to plant a bomb or something, and, whether we were from Al – Qaida or Taliban or some such group?
How sensibly could you choose your words? Here again, the fingers were raised towards beards, appearance and despite my ID card telling them my name was Diwakar, they strained hard to make the name cohere with some symbolic image that they might have had of me. After this, we were “freed” with the advice: be careful, don’t take photos.
So, just because of a camera and more than that, because of Diwakar’s beard, we both today got a glimpse of the bizarre working of our state’s law and order-enforcing machine. But it is not bizarre from our state’s perspective. This is the rule: to humiliate, control, assault individual and communities because of their appearance, believes, and religion.
Well, the rule is not unknown. But as we decided to go and ask for a written apology from the police for the incident, in the police-station an officer thought it necessary to explain the rule with a ‘suitable’ example.
It was now after midnight and we were 10 students in the same police station. After the greetings of ‘fu*k off’ and etc, one officer decided to lend an ear to our words. After listening ‘patiently’ to us, he took the pain to go through a file and show us a particular case to justify the slap. In front of us was a photo-copied voter ID card. He asked one of our friends to read it. The card turned out to be of a Muslim guy from Gulmarg. The officer added happily that they had called that man to the station and slapped him to get the information. When one of us asked if being a Kashmiri was the offence and if a Kashmiri can’t live anywhere in India, the officer tried to justify the action with the typical notions around terrorism.
Anyway, after much deliberation, the officer decided to take a written document from us demanding apology and asked us to come again next morning (December 19).
Our demands were:
1. An apology for the humiliation and physical assault
2. An apology for suspecting on the basis of appearance and thus also demonising a particular community
3. An assurance that they will be cautious not to repeat such sort of callous action on basis of religion, community, appearance
We decided to go back to the police station to learn if they were ready to give the apology and the assurance in written or rather, it would be more about how normal their bizarre rules are. Five of us friends had planned and appealed others who were interested in joining to join us at Shopcom (a place nearby) at 10 am.
On December 19 afternoon when we went to the police station to follow-up about what had been done about our complaint submitted at night, we got to meet the SI around 5.15 pm. He was the same guy who asked us the earlier day (December 18) whether we were there in the vicinity to plant a bomb. So, on December 19 evening, he first denied everything; when we still stood our ground and asked for his apology in written, he became abusive.
There were constant sign of arrogance: ‘Yes, police does make mistake, so what?’ ‘Why will I register a complaint?’, ‘Yes, you’ll be a suspect for this beard’, ‘How dare you come here with this complaint?’ As we still pursued our points, other cops also started to enter SI’s room. At one point he actually got up from his chair and started manhandling us. Other cops joined in. We were accompanied by four friends; all of us were shoved out of the room. Till the main gate, all the cops were busy pushing us, trying to slap us, and if we were standing together, then dragging us apart.
As many students came to know about the incident, next day around 20 students joined us to the station. The way they behaved on 18th, again on 19th, it is now really terrifying to visit Lingampally area. On December 20 also, there was at first reluctance to accept the complaint. (In this complaint, we also added about the police behaviour on 19th.)
Finally, on December 20, we were able to lodge a complaint against the cops involved in manhandling. The CI of the station talked about taking disciplinary action against the involved cops.
We yet do not know what will come out of it. We will see now what follows.
The individual scar is yet not over, but we will get over it.