'Hyderabad Police beat up HCU students, threatened girls with rape'

Hyderabad: Students at the University of Hyderabad (also Hyderabad Central University or HCU) have alleged that they were abused and tortured by the police during its recent crackdown inside the campus amid the ongoing row over suicide of Dalit PhD scholar Rohith Vemula.

The accusations were made even as Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao ordered an investigation into alleged police brutalities at the university.

The students, who were detained, alleged that they were tortured and threatened by the cops while in transit in police vans.

The Cyberabad Police has also been accused of not adhering to the Constitutional provisions as it failed to produce arrested students before a court within a stipulated time of 24 hours.

It has been alleged that the police took more than 30 hours to produce the students before a magistrate.

The arrested students were granted bail by a court on Monday and will be released from jail today.

As per a report in the Deccan Chronicle, students alleged that the cops beat up arrested students mercilessly for 'daring' to mess with them.

The police men even called the students 'anti-nationals' and threatened them, a student told the newspaper.

As per Amnesty International, which carried out its own probe into police brutalities, the cops even threatened female students with rape.

Telangana DGP Anurag Sharma has said that they will set up a panel to investigate the allegations.