hyderabad: The Telangana high court on Monday pulled up cops for alleged torture of two men from the Old City while in custody, who between them have 38 FIRs against their names for thefts, and directed Cyberabad police commissioner to personally investigate the cases against the duo and submit a report in two weeks. The Cyberabad

CP was also told to look into the conduct of cops and take action if they were found guilty. A division bench headed by Telangana HC Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan got the two men from Chandrayangutta — Syed Sohail (19) and his brother Syed Mohammed (24) — examined by a three-member medical board from Osmania General Hospital (OGH) after they were produced in HC on Monday following a court order last week in a habeas corpus plea by their wives. They had accused the cops of taking them from their home on Sept 8. The cops, however, claimed that the two were arrested on Sept 17 and produced before a magistrate on Sept 18 who had remanded them in judicial custody at Cherlapalli jail. While the petitioners’ counsel Sheik Karimulla accused Rayadurgam police of torturing the duo, state’s counsel Sripathi santhosh Kumar refuted the charge. “The injuries on the bodies of the accused are self-inflicted ones.

Moreover, they were there even before police detained them,” Kumar said. The bench of CJ and Justice A abhishek Reddy spoke with the two men and even examined the torture marks. Wondering how one could inflict injuries in areas in the back that are inaccessible, the bench directed the OGH superintendent to constitute a 3-member medical board and send them to court immediately. Till then the two men were kept at the CJ’s chamber. In the lunch hour, the medical team examined the men and gave a report that the injuries were not old but fresh ones, suggesting illtreatment at the hands of the police. In the afternoon session, the bench then quizzed the state counsel as to why the police did not get the accused examined medically before effecting an arrest. “Why did jail superintendent too failed to get them examined before admitting them into jail.

The reports of the private hospital and the jail superintendent that there were no injuries on the accused are shrouded in a cloud of suspicion and mystery,” the bench said. “CrPC Section 54 clearly says that police should get the accused examined by government doctors and not at private hospitals,” the bench added as it directed the Cyberabad commissioner to inquire into the matter. In the meantime, the HC made the jail superintendent responsible for their safety and ordered not to allow any policeman to meet the two in jail. The two men, who have 38 FIRs against them, came in the police radar in 2015 when the first FIR was registered. Though they always got bail, they were arrested in Oct 2018 under the Preventive Detention Act, but were subsequently released by an HC order in July 2019