‘Assaulted, threatened with rape’: Shamli family recall torture in police custody
On May 20 this year, the corpses of two unidentified women were found in a sugarcane field at Jaganpur village in Kairana, Uttar Pradesh. The police filed an FIR for murder as the young women bore head injuries, and launched a manhunt for potential suspects. On June 7, the police landed up at Hashim Ali’s house at Khurgan village, and took away him and his daughter, Nida.
“They beat up my father, then they beat me,” said Nida, 18, who was held in the Kairana police station for 36 hours without being charged. “I was told to give a false statement that I had seen those two girls somewhere or I would be sent to jail where I would be raped.”
On July 18, the police arrived again. This time, they took away Hashim, his wife Shazia, and their other daughter, Sadaf…. Sadaf, like her sister, was told to admit that the dead women were known to the family, she alleged. She wouldn’t because she didn’t even know who they were, Sadaf said. And neither did Nida….
