'Respond on police excesses during lockdown': HC to T govt

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court, on 27 April, directed authorities to respond to the plea seeking to quash all cases registered against journalists, social workers, and citizens; release all vehicles seized by the police during the lockdown and constitute a high-level committee under legal services authority to look into the allegations within two weeks.

The HC was hearing a PIL filed by a city-based social activist S.Q Masood on the police excesses during the lockdown. In his plea, Mr Masood told the HC that police brutalities against the public, journalists, and social workers had increased although the state government has allowed the operations of entities dealing with essential commodities, ATMs, print and electronic media, telecom, postal and Internet service providers, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies, and other organisations from 6 a.m to 7 a.m during the day. He said that videos of police brutalities have gone viral on social media.

Arguing the case before a division Bench comprising Chief Justice R.S Chauhan and Justice A. Abhishek Reddy, Mr Masood said the videos reflected a problem in the way the cops were dealing with the ongoing lockdown as a law and order problem.

He told the HC that there was a need to sensitise the police on the issue. He urged the HC to issue directions to the state government to ensure that all police personnel was made aware of the limits of the statutory provisions as well as the conditions set out the MHA guidelines besides other reliefs. The division Bench later adjourned the case for two weeks.