Talib Hussain, who is a key witness in the Kathua gangrape and murder case, has allegedly been brutally assaulted inside the Samba police station where he is in police remand on charges of rape and possession of weapons. According to Hussain’s family, he was assaulted around lunch time on August 6.
“When lunch was being served, two civilians in the police station assaulted him. They repeatedly banged his head against the wall. The policemen present there, instead of protecting Talib, joined in the assault. They beat him severely,” a member of Hussain’s family told The Wire, preferring to remain anonymous.
According to another family member, some relatives had gone to meet Hussain in the afternoon and were denied entry. “We were told that we cannot meet him. We thought something was wrong. And when we asked a few people there, they told us that Talib had been beaten badly. They thought that he had died.”
However, Hussain’s family members later found out that he had been taken to a hospital in Samba. “According to people who saw him there, he was covered in blood when he was brought. His head was badly smashed and there were other injuries too,” said Hussain’s relative.
During the day, Supreme Court lawyer Indira Jaising also tweeted about the assault. She claimed that Hussain had been tortured while in custody and his skull fractured.
Hussain’s family on Tuesday approached the Supreme Court with a habeas corpus writ petition claiming that Hussain has been kept in illegal detention and being subjected to custodial torture. A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Indira Banerjee considered the submission and the apex court will hear the plea on August 8.
