annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights

INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Karnataka
raped her. After sometime two policemen
arrived at the spot and managed to arrest
two culprits. They abused Kokila in filthy
language and took her to the
Byappanahalli police station, Bangalore
along with the two miscreants. According
to her, in the police station, she was
stripped naked, handcuffed and beaten up.
The policemen allegedly tortured her
sexually. 14
On 26 October 2004, two minor boys,
aged 13 and 15 years, hailing from
Chandapura under Anekal Taluk,
Bangalore were allegedly subjected to
brutal torture by the police in the custody
of the MICO Layout police station in
Bangalore. The boys were handed over to
the MICO Layout police after they were
caught stealing a mobile phone from a
youth hostel in Madivala on the same day.
The police allegedly abused them and even
administered electric shocks to elicit a
confession. They were later handed over to
the Makkala Sahayavani (an initiative of
the Bangalore City Police to attend
problems of children) who in turn
produced them before the Child Welfare
Committee. Nina Nayak, the chairperson
of the Committee, reportedly stated that
the children could barely sit due to the
physical injuries they had suffered. Police
had repeatedly squashed the younger boy’s
thumb with their boots due to which it had
severely swollen. Both the children have
welt marks, which could only made by a
police baton. 15 Later in an identification
parade, the children reportedly identified a
police constable, Chikkalingaiah as the
120
torturer. 16
iii. Violence against women
The Karnataka Police have also been
responsible for violence against women
including rape.
An undertrial lodged in the Gulbarga
Central Jail, Sridevi Saidappa from
Dhudani in Maharashtra alleged that she
was raped by two police constables
identified as Rukmakanth and Siddanna
on the evening of 4 October 2004. She
was being escorted back to the Gulbarga
Central Jail from Aland, where she was
taken for a hearing in the Aland court.
Woman constable Shoba, who was
accompanying the party, was allegedly
sent away by the constables. The police
constables, however, denied the
allegation. A medical examination
conducted at the District General Hospital
in Gulbarga also reportedly found no
physical marks on her body. The doctors
sent the smears for examination at the
forensic laboratory, Bangalore. 17 Earlier in
February 2004, the Supreme Court in a
judgement on another rape case at
Athnoor village in Gulbarga district held
that absence of injuries on the body of the
victim would not by itself be sufficient to
discard the prosecution. 18
On 20 October 2004, a police
constable, Hanumanthappa in Jagalur,
allegedly raped a 15-year-old schoolgirl of
Class X. Constable Hanumanthappa
accosted the girl when she was returning
from a floor mill to her house near the
police quarters at around 6:45 pm in the