By TwoCircles.net staff reporter
Khamgaon : The law and order machinery here
is losing fast the confidence of Muslims by its inapt handling of the cases of violence in this riot-torn town. The police officials are duty bound to protect the lives and properties of the citizens in a neutrally professional manner but they more often than not turn biased and even play a typically partisan role when dealing with a case involving Muslims. This was exactly the case when no less a police officer than Superintendent of Police of Buldhana threatened a Muslim to ‘strangulate him to death in police lockup’.
This town of district Buldhana in Maharashtra witnessed a communal flare-up last Tuesday following stone pelting during a Ganesh procession in front of Mastan Chowk Masjid here at Iftar time. On Sunday the
curfew was further relaxed from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Urdu daily Inquilab (October 1) reports that a Muslim riot victim Inamullah Khan Rahmatullah Khan, 32, received serious injuries on the face when three miscreants on a black Pulsar motorcycle (MH313290) knuckle-punched him while
the victim was going to purchase vegetables near Tilak Maidan at 8 a.m. Sunday. When the victim started screaming, the attackers succeeded in running off.
When his elder brother Azmatullah Khan phoned Superintendent of Police Himmat Rao Desh Bhartal to inform him of the incident, the SP got angry and cut the line saying, "Am I only officer in District Buldhana?"
When the victim reached the police station to get an FIR (First Information Report) registered, the SP was present there.
The report adds that the SP scolded him saying: "Your brother Azmatullah phoned me. We are very dangerous people. We will put him in the lockup and strangulate him to death and you people cannot harm me."
However, in a conversation with the paper, the SP denied ever having threatened the victim’s brother of strangulating him to death.
"I did say to him to phone some other police officer but did not threaten him to strangulate him to death. In the police station I told his brother to prohibit his brother otherwise he will fall into trouble as we have complaints against him that he instigated Muslims.
However someone has knuckle-punched him and a case has been registered," he said.
When the Inquilab correspondent contacted Director General of Police, the latter told him that he had talked to the SP and Azmatullah both and advised the SP to keep cool as turning angry does not solve any problem and the issue has to be solved sincerely and tactfully.
The Home Minister RR Patil was surprised when he said, "Is it the SP who has said so? I will look into the matter myself. If the SP has said so, I will initiate very stringent action against him under my supervision."