Youth Refuses To Pay Bribe, Gets Kidneys Damaged

In a case of the fence itself eating the grass, the police, instead of probing an alleged assault on a youth for refusing to pay a bribe to an Agriculture Officer (AO), beat him black and blue, resulting in his kidneys failing.

Though this incident occurred sometime back in Mominpet of Vikarabad district, it came to light after the victim's family lodged a complaint with the District Superintendent of Police on Monday.

According to the information reaching here, a B Tech graduate, P Kanna Reddy of Errapalli village in Vikarabad district, had decided to set up a fertilizers and insecticides firm in Mominpet. Accordingly, he was stated to have applied for he required permissions to the Mandal Agriculture Officer Neeraja.

However, the application was kept pending for nearly two months allegedly because the AO demanded a bribe of Rs 20,000 for issuing the license.

The youth approached the ACB authorities and lodged a complaint against the AO. However, the ACB officials said that they would not be able to do anything in the matter without proper evidence.

Reddy then again approached the AO to get the required license sanctioned. When the AO again demanded the bribe amount, the youth tried to record the same on his mobile phone. Noticing this, the AO rang up her husband and then smashed the mobile phone of the victim, and also lodged a police complaint alleging that the victim was harassing her.

Based on the complaint lodged by the woman AO, the Sub-Inspector of the Mominpet police station took Reddy to the police station a week back. The youth was allegedly beaten up in the police station in the presence of the AO and her husband.

When his health deteriorated after the harsh treatment at the hands of the police, Reddy got admitted in a private hospital in the city. Upon examination, the doctors stated that both his kidneys were badly damaged.

The doctors informed Reddy that the pain killers that he had been taking in order to get over the severe pain due to the beatings of the police had led to his kidneys failing. The victim had already needed to undergo dialysis twice.

The family members of Reddy explained these factors to the SP Annapurna, who ordered an inquiry into the matter.

The Vikarabad DSP, who has been entrusted with the inquiry, has already recorded the statement of Kanna Reddy, and is expected to submit his report to the SP.