Hyderabad: In a shocking incident, a Telangana policeman kicked the grieving father of a 16-year-old college student who died under suspicious circumstances.
The video of the policeman repeatedly kicking the man went viral on the social media, prompting the officials to announce action against him.
The incident occurred on Wednesday at Patancheru in Sanga Reddy district near Hyderabad.
According to police, Sandhya Rani, student of Intermediate First Year (11th standard), was found dead under suspicious circumstances at a private college in Velimala village on Tuesday,
Police registered a case of criminal negligence against the college management on the complaint of her father and the body was kept at mortuary room in government hospital, Patancheru for autopsy.
The relatives of the deceased tried to take the body to college where she had committed suicide. They wanted to stage a protest and demand justice to the family.
Chandana Deepti, in-charge superintendent of police, Sangareddy district, said the relatives and other students attacked the mortuary room and brought out the body from the hospital premises.
The police chased away the protestors and managed to take possession of the coffin. As they were carrying back the coffin to the hospital, the girl's father tried to block their path wanting to know how his daughter died.
The man threw himself to the ground and clung to the coffin. One of the police constables, identified as Sridhar, kicked the man repeatedly.
"The entire police department regrets the insensitive beahviour of the said police constable officer and he has been attached to AR (Armed Reserve) head quarter Sangareddy immediately and a disciplinary action will be initiated against him after a detailed enquiry of the incident," the police official said.
As the video triggered public outrage over social media, cabinet minister K. T. Rama Rao tweeted that he has asked Home Minister Mehmood Ali and Director General of Police Mahender Reddy to look into the insensitive handling by the policemen. "Showing empathy in times of grief such as this is the basic courtesy that is expected of Govt officials," said Rama Rao.
"It is an unfortunate incident. The concerned police officer has been withdrawn from duties and attached to Hqrs. SP Sangareddy has been directed to take appropriate measures to prevent recurrence of such incidents," tweeted the DGP.
