Notwithstanding strictures by National Human Rights Commission and Andhra Pradesh High Court regarding the extra judicial methods adopted by policemen in the State in the name of maintaining law and order, police excesses continue in periodic regularity in the State.

... Three incidents of police brutalities, including one in the State capital, have sent shockwaves in the State and served to further alienate police from the masses.

Two women were raped, while another was molested during the week by the protectors of the law. The most bizarre, however, was the burning of a hotel worker by three police constables for no apparent reason int he city on Friday. The incident would have otherwise remained unknown but for the chance survival of the victim. Though the three constables thought him to be dead and ordered an autorickshaw driver to take him to a hospital confident with the knowledge that he would be pronounced dead by doctors on arrival, because of sheer luck he survived for a whole day to tell the shocking story ...

All the victims happen to be Muslims and this has created an impression among the minorities that they are being made targets in the wake of new political equation involving TDP and the BJP in the State. The TDP leaders have been at pains to deny the insinuations, nonetheless the fear refuses to subside ..

The week began with the harrowing tale of Mumtaz, a housewife in her early 30s. Mumtaz used to seel arrack in her native Kadiri town in Anantapur district to augment family income. From her statement it seems the policemen, on deputation to excise department, had an eye on her daughter-in-law. They had threatened her with serious consequences for selling arrack, which is banned in Andhra Pradesh and hinted that the matter could be settled amicably if she could sent her daughter-in-law to the station.

On the evening of April 4, she was picked up by three constables, named Srinivasulu, Rafique and Rajgopal, on the pretext of questioning. She was kept at the excise station for 48 hours and allegedly gangraped by the three constables and that too in the present of the station-in-charge, Mr. Ramachandra Reddy. Dilshad, female relative of hers was allegedly molested.

A traumatised Mumtaz was not cowed down by the threat of the constables for the court of the additional judicial first class magistrate in the town and narrated her story. Admitting the case, the magistrate referred her ... for medical examination.

.. The Government has subsequently placed under suspension the three constables, two of whom were later arrested, while one was absconding.

The timely steps taken by district administration has prevented the incident building into a communal flare-up ...