Mangalore, November 25: At the monthly SC/ST grievance meeting held at the Police Commissioner's office in the city on Sunday, Sadashiv from Urwa Store alleged that he had been humiliated by Pandeshwar police constable Shaaju twice, but no action had been taken against him in spite of having registered a criminal case.
According to Mr Sadashiv, Shaaju had hurled verbal abuses on him near the service bus stand on October 30 while being off-duty and in an inebriated state. This happened again on another occasion in Ballalbagh. The constable has not reported for duty from the past week. He should have been immediately suspended, but so far no action has been taken, he said, urging the Commissioner to look into the matter and speed up the investigation process.
Chairing the grievance meeting, Manish Kharbikar, Mangalore Police Commissioner, said that an inquiry order had been made and assured him of prompt action once investigation was done.
In another case, Ashok Konchadi, from Derebail village, accused Ravichandra, a non-Dalit, of encroaching a part of the land allotted by the government to the Dalit community. He said that Ravichandra and Krishnappa Konchadi, a Dalit leader, together had submitted an application letter to the regional Tahsildar containing false information and forged signatures.
“They have misused the letter-head belonging to CPI(M) in the application. Information regarding the survey number and plot numbers provided in the application does not tally with the original. The sign of Janardhan Poojary, a non-Dalit, has been forged by them on the document,” he claimed.
Similarly, Hemanth, a member of the SC/ST community, had applied for a sum of money for the construction of a house, under the SC/ST 22.75 scheme fund.
Mr Ashok complained that before Hemanth could receive his cheque from the Mangalore City Corporation, Krishnappa Konchadi submitted a petition claiming that the land was in dispute, due to which, the cheque had been held up. He requested the Commissioner to conduct an investigation on the actions of Mr Konchadi.
“Krishnappa Konchadi has been oppressing Dalits' rights. Despite being a Dalit leader, he is exploiting us internally,” Ashok later told Coastaldigest.com.
A case came to light at the meeting, wherein Sumitra Umesh, expressed her grievance that despite having lodged several complaints from the past two years at the Konaje police station, there had been no response from the personnel there. “My family faces threats each day, but none of it is taken seriously at the police station, she claimed.
According to her, following her husband's accident in 2006, who was an assistant lecturer at Mangalore University, Konaje, she had faced indifference from the police officers. She claimed that FIRs were not registered by the police in Dalit cases, responding to which Mangalore DCP (Crime & Traffic) D Dharmaiah said that such complaints had to be communicated to higher police officials promptly, so that action could be taken.
In cases of harassment by auto-rickshaw drivers, G V Subramaniam, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic), advised the gathering to note down the registration numbers of such auto rickshaws and report them promptly to the Mangalore City Traffic Police.
Dalit leaders S P Anand, Lingappa Nanthoor and various others were present at the meeting.
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