The City Crime Branch police of Bengaluru during the last 10 days had taken into custody about 10 youth of Sivadi village of Peddapanjani mandal near Palamaner on charges of burglary, stealing vehicles and chain-snatching.
The episode came to light on Friday morning, with a couple of youth undergoing treatment at a Palamaner hospital alleging harassment and torture by the Karnataka cops.
Confirming the raids at Sivadi village, the Peddapanjani (Chittoor district) police said that it was true that a group of policemen in uniform from Bengaluru came there and took two youth into custody in the early hours of October 10.
Villagers obstruct cops
“The cops told the villagers that they were from Karnataka and wanted to take the youth with them for interrogation in connection with various charges. When the villagers tried to attack the cops and obstruct them, our team went there and pacified the two sides. Later, two youth were allowed to go with the Karnataka cops,” the sub-inspector said.
The official said that a couple of days ago, the Karnataka police led by a DSP visited the village again and had allegedly taken away several youth with them, believed to be eight more.
“If we receive any complaint from villagers, we can look into it. Preliminary information is that the youth were involved in crimes such as selling stolen property, vehicle-lifting and gold theft,” he said.
In this backdrop, the villagers alleged that the Karnataka police had beaten the youth, and one of them suffered paralysis of legs.