BKC cop thrashes man, kin moves Bombay High Court

Mumbai: A lawyer, Asif Hussain, has approached the Bombay high court, stating that a policeman at BKC police station beat up his younger brother after he tried to intervene in a fight. According to the victim, Shakir (19), policemen were beating up a couple outside the police station.

When Hussain and his friends tried to intervene, the officer concerned slapped him hard, causing his eardrum to tear. The lawyer alleged that the BKC police station has refused to file an FIR and when they asked for details about the CCTV footage in the station via an RTI, the policeman said that the “recording and storage facility for CCTVs has not been inaugurated, hence there is no footage of the incident..”

Narrating the incident that happened in the wee hours of December 26, Shakir told The Asian Age, “I was returning from Mount Mary church with two other friends when I saw a woman crying and shouting on the road right opposite the BKC police station. She was trying to stop some policeman who had held another man by his collar. My friends and I got off the bike and asked them what happened when the man told me that he had been caught while riding without a helmet.

He said that the cops had picked a fight with him and had even hit him a few times,” said Shakir. He added that he whipped out his phone and started recording the incident. “The policeman, noticing this, snatched my phone and abused me. He then dragged me into a room in the station. He slapped me hard six to seven times. He then snatched away '2,000 that I was carrying,” he said.

The Asian Age tracked down the man who was allegedly being beaten, Tehmina Chaudhary, who works with a MNC. He said that on the night of the incident he was returning from Mahim Church after attending mass with his wife.

“We had stopped near Kala Nagar junction to have coffee so I had removed my helmet. Immediately, two constables approached me and asked me pay a fine for riding helmetless. They then took me to the BKC police station. There an officer who refused to give me his name started roughing me up and abusing me.

When I pointed out his rude behaviour, he stood and pushed me. His nails scratched my ears,” Mr Chaudhary said. The policeman also pushed his wife when she tried to intervene. “Hearing the ruckus three boys approached us and the same officer slapped one of the boys very hard and took him to another room,” he said.

According to Asif, when he approached the BKC police station to register an FIR, the station refused to do so. “I took Shakir to three hospitals and the doctor said the slap had lead to a ruptured eardrum,” said Asif.

He added that he filed an FIR with the Mumbai police, asking them to hand over or show CCTV footage of the night of the incident. The reply given by BKC police station, a copy of which is with The Asian Age states that while there were CCTVs installed, they had been activated.”