Police in Varthur, East Bengaluru, have illegally detained a Muslim man and severely tortured him for four days until the poor man was forced to lose his right arm due to serious injuries.
The poor man is Salman Khan, a resident who used to work in a chicken shop before losing his job in the Covid crisis. At the end of last October, he was arrested by the police after being suspected of being involved in a car battery theft case.
According to a fact-finding report, the 22-year-old man’s detention which lasted from October 27 to 31, is alleged to have violated several protocols.
The report said that Salman was not given food and water during his detention, the police did not register an FIR against him at all, his family was not even informed of his arrest, nor was he presented before the Magistrate with 24-hour detention.
The report is the result of a collaboration between activists from the National Confederation of Human Rights Organizations, the All India Lawyers Association for Justice, the Campaign Against Hate Speech, and independent advocates.
The three police officers who allegedly tortured Salman, who identified as Nagabhushan Gowda HC, Nagaraj BN, and Shivaray H, were suspended on December 2.
In an interview with The Indian Express, Salman said while he was being held at the Varthur Police Station, he was mercilessly attacked by three men. He later confessed to stealing three car batteries and then being taken to meet the people he sold the batteries to.
After being brought back to the police station, he was forced to confess to another theft. However, the police intensified the torture after refusing to admit to other crimes he did not commit. He was tied upside down and assaulted for three days by three police officers targeting one body part at a time, including his badly injured right hand.
Due to the severity of the injury, he sustained in his right arm, Salman had to be amputated at Bangalore Hospital, Karnataka.
