For the past 13 years, Nasreen Begum has been trying to get her son, Jaweed Qader Irshad, removed from the Hyderabad police’s history-sheeters list but in vain.
“The police come and pick up my son every time there is a crime. They say it’s routine but keep him at the Golconda police station and beat him up all night, often trying to force confessions out of him for rape or robbery. It reached a point where I used to pay Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 to the police constables not to beat my son up,” says the single mother of six children.
Nasreen has approached the State Human Rights Commission through her lawyer alleging that the Golconda Police has confused her son Jaweed of Tolichowki with another history-sheeter from Hakeempet. The mother alleged that the police come looking for her son each time a new Station House Officer takes charge at the Golconda police station and also each time a crime takes place.
“On June 7, the constables came home when Jaweed wasn’t at home. They beat my youngest son to a pulp, he already has kidney ailments. I had to rush him to Osmania Hospital, his condition is serious,” says Nasreen, breaking down over the phone while adding, “I’ve had enough of the police, we’re fed up.”
Trouble for Jaweed, then 22, began in 2007 when he was booked along with his brother-in-law over a dispute with a neighbour. The case was closed in 2012. “That was a small quarrel between two neighbours and Jaweed, who went to try and resolve the issue, was also named in the case. The neighbour had a grudge. The police then arrested my son and my son-in-law. We brought them out on bail and the matter was resolved in 2012. But the Golconda Police added a paper to the file claiming Jaweed was a rowdy-sheeter and this file was never closed,” says Nasreen. Since then Jaweed has been picked up by the police numerous times, the mother adds.
Jaweed, now 35 and the father of two children, earns a living as a painter. But he doesn’t use a phone anymore. “My son stopped using a phone because of the police. They call to ask his whereabouts and then pick him up. My family has a good reputation. I teach Arabic and Quran to children, you can ask anyone in the locality about my son. No one will say he is even capable of being involved in criminal activity,” says the mother, who alleges that the police have her son confused with someone else.
Speaking to TNM, Golconda Police Inspector K Chandrashekar Reddy says that both Jaweed from Tolichowki and Hakeempet are the same person and that the history-sheeter file will be closed if he proves to the police to be living a normal life.
“Last year, we closed two cases against history-sheeters as they were living a respectable life. This person, however, has not come to the police station in recent times. If he proves he is living a normal life, we will file the report and the higher-ups will close the case,” says the officer. “Only those who have committed some crime don’t show up when we call,” he adds.
Nasreen, however, says that in 2016 her son was picked up from her home under the pretext of closing the file against him. “They told us they are calling him to the station to close the case but instead they beat him up all night at the police station. How is anyone going to trust the police when they beat people who get called to the station?” asks the mother who is gearing up to take the Hyderabad police to the Telangana High Court over the issue.
The State Human Rights Commission has directed the Deputy Commissioner of Police, West Zone to appoint a responsible police officer other than the SHO of the Golconda police station to find out whether the said rowdy-sheeter is the same as Jaweed from Hakeempet. The report is to be filed by August 10 this year. The officer was unavailable for comment.