Ranga Reddy: Cops drag PJTSAU woman protestor by hair, video goes viral; NHRC takes notice

Hyderabad: National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), has taken suo motu cognizance of a media report about lady police officials dragging a protesting student by her hair during an agitation at Professor Jayanshankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) in the Ranga Reddy district of Telangana on January 24.

The video of the incident has gone viral.

During the agitation, students were protesting against a decision of the state government allocating 100 acres of land belonging to the university, for the construction of the new High Court complex. Some protestors started running as cops wanted to take them into preventive custody.

In the video, the two women cops riding a scooter were chasing a woman protestor. The pillion rider grabbed the hair of the protester as the scooter remained in motion. The protester fell and then the cops stopped the scooter. The video of the reported incident has gone viral on social media.

Following this, the Commission has observed that the contents of the media report, if true, raise serious issue of violation of human rights of the victim girl.

Accordingly, it has issued notice to the Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police, Telangana calling for a detailed report on the matter within 4 weeks. They said that the report should also include the action taken report and the health status of the victim girl.

Reacting to the incident, Telangana ABVP said the woman who was pulled by the hair is an ABVP leader. "Yesterday when the entire nation talked about safeguarding our girls, this is how a female ABVP Voice activist was manhandled in Telangana. Her fault? She was protesting against the Telangana government because the land for an educational institution was allocated for a court. In Bharat, we worship women and in this new Bharat, there will be zero tolerance for those who dare to drag a woman by hair," said ABVP.