Hyderabad, Oct 31 Raising its doubts over the alleged encounter death of Shaik Riyaz and the murder of a police constable in Telangana’s Nizamabad town, an independent fact-finding committee has demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The fact-finding committee said that only the CBI probe can reveal the truth behind 24-year-old Riyaz’s killing, constable Pramod Kumar’s murder, the role of one Asif and his accomplices, the extortion racket allegedly involving policemen and the counterfeit currency nexus.
The fact-finding committee also uncovered ‘horrific sexual torture inflicted on Riyaz’s elderly mother, his wife, and his two minor children’.
The panel comprising social rights and civil rights activists Khalida Parveen, Sarah Mathews, Majid Shuttari, Advocate Sameer Ali, Mohammad Abdul Taj, and Shaikh Sikandar on Friday made its report public at a press conference here on Friday.
Riyaz (24) was killed in an alleged encounter by police on October 20 at the government hospital in Nizamabad, where he was undergoing treatment. Police claimed that he tried to snatch a weapon from a policeman and died when the policeman opened fire to stop him.
According to police, ‘habitual offender’ Riyaz was stabbed to death while being escorted by Pramod on a motorbike on October 17 after he was arrested in a vehicle theft case. Pramod’s nephew was also sitting on the same motorbike.
The police also claimed that a citizen named Asif helped police in nabbing Riyaz, who was allegedly absconding after the constable’s murder.
The panel, in its report, alleged ‘egregious violations of fundamental human rights, a blatant erosion of the rule of law, and an intricately orchestrated cover-up.
“This includes custodial murder, sexual torture of vulnerable women and children, police extortion schemes, and a staged police encounter designed to hide a corrupt nexus between the police, counterfeit currency gangs, and finance companies operating in Nizamabad,” reads the report.
“The official police narrative has deliberately portrayed the deceased Riyaz as a "hard-core villain" while completely omitting any mention of his legitimate profession as a recovery agent for finance companies. This suppression of key facts seems aimed at vilifying him to justify the actions taken against him and his family, while protecting the real perpetrators,” the panel said.
According to the fact-finding committee, witnesses who saw the body of constable Pramod being dumped on the road, as well as those aware of the negotiations between the police and Riyaz over bribe amounts, are refusing to come forward and depose due to intense fear of police reprisals.
The panel discovered that Riyaz found Rs 3 lakh cash in one of the scooters that he had seized as part of his recovery work, but it turned out to be counterfeit currency. He laundered the counterfeit currency into real currency and purchased a new scooter.
The panel also found that the original owner of the scooter seized by Riyaz with Rs 3 lakh fake notes hidden in it belonged to Asif, whom the police later tried to portray as a hero.
As Asif was pressurising Riyaz to repay the money, Riyaz approached constable Pramod Kumar. The constable, according to the report, took Riyaz to his seniors, who allegedly demanded a bribe.
Quoting locals, the fact-finding committee stated that Riyaz and Pramod met at a secret location to negotiate the bribe amount. Asif and his unknown accomplices tried to kill Riyaz to eliminate the threat he posed, but he managed to escape while Pramod was killed either by mistake or deliberately to silence him as a witness to the racket. The killers dumped Pramod’s body on Vinayak Nagar Road.
The panel expressed the suspicion that Riyaz died during police custody due to torture, but police fabricated the story that he was killed as he tried to escape by snatching a weapon from a policeman. It said Asif was made a hero to cover up the nexus.
The Telangana State Human Rights Commission has already taken suo motu cognisance of the encounter of Shaik Riyaz and directed the Director General of Police to submit a detailed report.
Later, Riyaz’s mother, wife and minor children appeared before the Commission and submitted a written complaint stating that they were being prevented from entering their house and subjected to third-degree methods by the police.
The family also alleged that the slain constable Pramod Kumar had demanded Rs 3 lakh from Riyaz, of which Rs 30,000 had already been paid, and that fraudulent monetary dealings had occurred between them. The Commission directed police not to take any coercive action.
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