Video clips purportedly showing police picking up several men from neighbourhoods late at night have triggered concern and outrage on social media, with several asking what wrong the men had done.
The clips showed a policeman in uniform and another in plainclothes stopping unsuspecting men and bundling them into a police vehicle for counselling. The incident happened under the Shalibanda Police Station limits. Another clip shows a man parking his vehicle near a house when police take him away in the vehicle, even as the man protests that he is right outside his home. He even offers to call his father.
At the police station, the men are warned not to roam the roads after midnight. The policeman in uniform is then seen explaining to them that they should stay at home at night as ‘thieves roam around at night’.
Hyderabad-based activists Srinivas Kodali and S.Q. Masood took to Twitter to express their concern over the incident, with the latter wondering if the men were treated as ‘potential criminals’. Several other social media users questioned what illegality had the men indulged in to be taken to a police station at that hour.
Shalibanda police inspector G. Kishan maintained that the D.K. Basu Guidelines, which mandate that the nameplate of an officer must be clearly visible at all times on the uniform of a police officer at the time of detention or arrest, were complied with at the time of the incident. The exercise was embarked upon as a deterrent to property offences, and to curb ‘unnecessary’ movement late at night. The policeman in uniform was there so that people do not flee the spot, he said.
