The Human Rights Forum (HRF) condemns the unlawful and brutal conduct of the Tenali police who meted out corporal punishment in public to accused persons in a case pertaining to an alleged attack on a police constable. This is an affront to the rule of law and violates Constitutional rights. We demand that an immediate inquiry be held, and police personnel involved be booked under relevant sections of the BNSS and SC/ST (PoA) Act. Police personnel must be counselled to act within the boundaries of the law and not their personal discretion.
In a video that emerged on May 26, 2025, two police personnel can be seen beating three young men in public. The video is reportedly from April 25 this year when four youth – Naveen, John Victor, Karimulla and Rakesh – were booked under various sections of BNSS following a complaint by Kanna Chiranjeevi, a constable with Tenali 1 Town Police Station. The complainant allegation is that the four young men attacked him on April 24, owing to past animosity, while he was on duty. A FIR (Cr. No. 42/2025, dated. 25.05.2025, Tenali II Town Police Station) was registered. However, instead of adhering to due process, the police resorted to public trashing, ostensibly to ‘teach them a lesson’. While Naveen is absconding, the other three were subjected to this degrading treatment in full public view.
We are given to understand that the accused attacked the constable when he objected to them consuming/selling marijuana in public. The four are reportedly serial offenders booked in various serious offences in multiple cases. Whatever be the nature of their alleged crimes, the police have no right to treat the accused in this manner – subjecting them to a public beating. The Constitution and the law lay out clear procedures to deal with any offender. To humiliate them in public and inflict violence is not among them. Such acts are inhuman and unlawful.
The police are reportedly justifying their actions by stating that those who attack them were being “taught a lesson”. If this logic were to be applied uniformly, what recourse must ordinary citizens – who are routinely subject to ill-treatment and violence in police custody – resort to? It might sound preposterous and rhetorical, but the question exposes a deeply flawed reasoning. The police, as enforcers of the law, have to operate strictly within its boundaries. They cannot exceed its limits and resort to such brazen illegalities.
G. Siva Nageswara Rao – HRF AP State vice-president
Y. Rajesh – HRF AP State general secretary
G. Rohith – HRF AP State secretary
27-05-2025,
Vijayawada.