india

Updated: Feb 27, 2020 13:29 IST

The Telangana police on Wednesday ordered an inquiry into the incident of a constable kicking a man who was wailing over the death of his teenage daughter in suspicious circumstances at her hostel room in Patancheru town of Sangareddy district on Tuesday.

A video of constable Sridhar kicking the girl’s father who was squatting on the road preventing the cops from taking her daughter’s body to the mortuary for post-mortem went viral on social media on Wednesday morning.

Once the video was telecast on the local news channels, student unions staged a protest rally at the hospital following which the district police authorities took the constable off the duties and attached him to the police headquarters.

Medak district superintendent of police Chandana Deepti, who is also in-charge of Sangareddy district, said an inquiry had been ordered into the incident and action would be initiated against the constable. “We shall suspend him if proven guilty,” she said.

According to the SP, the 16-year-old girl, a student of Intermediate first year (Class 11) at a corporate college at Velimela village on the outskirts of Patancheru town, allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself in the washroom of her hostel on Tuesday afternoon.

The college authorities, who came to know about the incident, rushed her to a private hospital at Nallagandla on the city outskirts, where she was declared brought dead. The police shifted her body to the mortuary at the Patancheru area hospital.

The girl’s parents, who belonged to Enugonda village of Mahabubnagar, complained to the police that their daughter had committed suicide due to ill-treatment by the college authorities.

On Wednesday morning, the parents and students who gathered in large numbers at the mortuary, tried to shift the body to the college where they wanted to stage a dharna. However, the police stalled their attempts and tried to move the body back to the mortuary for post-mortem.

As the police were rushing the freezer box towards the hospital, the girl’s father suddenly squatted in front of the box and caught hold of it, pleading with the police to take action against the college authorities.

Enraged at this, a police constable Sridhar tried to pull him away, and in the process, he kicked him on his stomach. The entire episode was caught on camera of media persons who were at the spot covering the agitation by the students. The police later arrested the students and shifted the body to the hospital for post-mortem.

The father of the girl told reporters that his daughter was not mentally weak to commit suicide. “She has been suffering from high temperature for the last few days, but the college authorities have not provided her proper medicare in the hostel,” he said.

Sangareddy SP said a case of suspicious death was registered in Bhanur police station and the post-mortem was being conducted. “On behalf of the police department, I deeply regret the rude behaviour of our constable. We shall take disciplinary action against him after due inquiry,” she said.