Congress Condemns Dalit Woman's Lockup Death

TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy and CLP Assembly leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka today urged Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan to take stringent action against the police personnel responsible for the reported lockup death of a Dalit woman, Mariyamma, under the SC and ST Atrocities Act.

In an open letter written to the Governor, they demanded that she take steps to prevent such incidents from taking place in Telangana in the future. They also demanded she direct the state government to give Rs 50 lakh compensation to Mariyamma's family and a government job to her son, Uday Kiran.

The two leaders then informed the Governor about the specifics of the incident, and said that Mariyamma had died while she was in the custody of the police after she was tortured by the local Adla Guduru police.

Providing more details of the custodial death of the Dalit woman, they said that she was a native of Chintakanipalli mandal's Komatigudem village, in Khammam, and that she had been working as a cook in a house in the Govindapuram village of Adla Guduru mandal in Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri.

"The police had arrested Mariyamma and her son Uday Kiran on charges of theft from the home where she had been working - both mother and son were arrested on June 16 in Komatigudem village and were taken to the Adla Guduru police station. They were then taken to the Chintakanipalli police station by the Adla Guduru and Komatigudem police the next evening. Though there are rules that clearly state that women police personnel need to be present when a woman is being arrested and rules that prohibit women from being interrogated at police stations during the night, these guidelines had all been violated when Mariyamma was arrested and interrogated," Reddy and Vikramarka stated.

They added, "Both Mariyamma and her son were subjected to severe torture using third-degree methods at the Chintakanipalli police station from 10:30 pm to 3:30 am on June 16. They were then tortured at the Adla Guduru police station again the next day. As a result of this, Mariyamma lost her life before the eyes of her own son Uday Kiran who is currently being treated at a hospital in Khammam."

The Congress leaders then said that police were trying to wash their hands off the death by stating that Mariyamma had died due to a heart attack, and thundered, "The police have been conniving to erase all the evidence of this judicial death. They have been trying to sweep all the facts pertaining to the case under the rug. But there is no doubt that Mariyamma's passing was a murder committed by the police. What is alarming is the fact that several such incidents have taken place in Telangana over the past few years."

"Seelam Rangaiah of Manthani mandal's Ramagiri village, Peddapalli district, also died in police custody. Before that, a person called Madhukar, a Dalit youth, was murdered for loving a girl from another caste in Manthani. Similarly, a youth, Revella Raju Babu, was murdered by higher caste people in Mallaram village in Bhupalapalli district. A Dalit farmer called Baggery Narasimhulu also committed suicide as his land has been acquired by the government in Gajwel mandal of Siddipet district. The police even arrested and tortured Dalit persons illegally when they objected to the mining of sand against the rules in Siricilla district's Nerella region," they pointed out.

After providing information about several instances of police violence, Reddy and Vikramarka asserted that such atrocities and police highhandedness against the Dalits were a common occurrence in Telangana and demanded that the Governor take steps to provide protection to the minority communities in the state from these atrocities and to ensure that these incidents did not recur.