The Telangana High Court today grilled the state government over the alleged the custodial death of a Dalit woman, Mariyamma.
(The Dalit woman was a native of Chintakanipalli mandal's Komatigudem village, in Khammam and 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 on June 16 in Komatigudem village. They had then taken the duo to the Adla Guduru police station. The next evening, they were shifted to the Chintakanipalli police station by the Adla Guduru and Komatigudem police.
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.
Many have pointed out that 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.)
It heard a petition on the matter during which it castigated the government severely for the incident, and asked whether similar lock-up deaths were common in the rest of the country as well.
Advocate General B S Prasad informed the court that a second postmortem had been performed on Mariyamma and that state government had provided aid of Rs 15 lakh and a job to her family. He also said that two the SI and two police constables involved in the incident had been dismissed.
Unsatisfied by the response, the HC retorted by asking the government whether the compensation would bring back the victim who had lost her life.
It then informed the government that the case would be heard again after the submission of the the Alair magistrate's enquiry report of the custodial death.
Further, the government was asked to file its counter within four weeks of the receipt of the magistrate's report. Later, the hearing was adjourned till September 15.
Reports of Mariyamma's death, which occured while she was in the custody of the police, have caused mass outrage. Following her death, a delegation of Congress leaders had even met Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao and urged him to
take action against those involved in the lock-up death.