The family of a 30-year-old man, who was arrested for reportedly assaulting a police constable, has said that he was suffering from a psychiatric condition and alleged that he was illegally detained for over 24 hours and beaten up by the police.
The man, a resident of Balur in Pernambut Taluk, was nabbed by the police attached to Omarabad station on March 19.
According to a police officer, the man was part of a group involved in gambling.
“When a team of policemen went to the spot, he assaulted a constable. The remaining members of the group fled the spot, and we nabbed him,” he said. The police personnel were in plainclothes.
‘Stopped medicines’
The man’s family claimed that he was suffering from a psychiatric condition and was undergoing treatment at a private hospital for the last 11 months.
“Though he was recovering, he started to exhibit symptoms in the last few weeks as he stopped taking his medicines,” a relative said.
He added that the man was picked up by the police from a burial ground on March 19, and was kept at the station for two nights before being remanded on March 21.
“His uncle found him beaten up in the police station. We accept that he did a mistake by assaulting the constable. But why was he kept in the station for more than 24 hours? They should have produced him before the court and remanded him. We informed the police that he was a psychiatric patient and they could verify it with the hospital but they did not pay heed to us,” he said.
The police officer, however, denied the family’s statement that the man was mental ly ill.
