Mob beats to death Hyderabad man accused of molesting a minor

Abdul Aziz's mother said her injured son was taken to the Kulsumpura Police Station and held there for two hours.

Hyderabad: A 50-year-old man accused of molesting a nine-year-old girl was beaten to death by a crowd in the city’s Jiyaguda locality on Thursday, July 16, a killing that his family says was compounded by hours of police inaction and which a local political party has demanded be investigated.

The man, Abdul Aziz, lived with his mother, Ghausia Bi, in a two-bedroom flat within the limits of the Kulsumpura Police Station. According to the police, he was assaulted at around 7 pm after closed circuit television (CCTV) camera footage surfaced showing him allegedly molesting the girl while dropping her home. The footage triggered public outrage, which in turn led to the attack.

‘They pulled him out and beat him’

By his mother’s account, Aziz had dropped the girl home and was asleep inside the flat when the crowd arrived. “My son had dropped the girl home and was sleeping inside the house when 50 people, including women, barged in and pulled Aziz out before beating him mercilessly,” Ghausia Bi told reporters. One woman, she alleged, struck her son with a broom and threatened her. She insisted Aziz had no enmity with anyone.

What she described next was not just a mob attack but also custodial neglect. Ghausia Bi said her injured son was taken to the Kulsumpura Police Station and held there for two hours. “My son was made to sit in the police station for two hours, where he fainted twice due to his injuries, but the police did not provide any medical attention,” she said.

Her account grew starker still. When Aziz collapsed, she alleged, the officers accused him of pretending. “When my son fainted twice, the police asked why he was acting and denied water to him. I had to fetch water for Aziz,” she said. The delay in arranging an ambulance, she contended, is what ultimately cost her son his life.

Police reject the detention claim

The Kulsumpura Police told a different story. They denied that Aziz was ever detained and reject the suggestion that medical help was withheld. “Yes, Aziz had come to the police station while being injured. He was not detained at the police station. An ambulance was provided and he died while undergoing treatment at the hospital,” Station House Officer (SHO) A Ramulu told Siasat.com, adding that he had been shifted to Osmania General Hospital.

Ramulu placed the attack at 7 pm on Thursday and said it followed the molestation allegation. A case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act was registered against Aziz on a complaint by the girl’s mother, he said. Separately, on a complaint by Ghausia Bi, a case of murder was registered against the 50 people accused of the assault. Both cases, Ramulu said, are under investigation.

A death, and a demand for a probe

The two narratives – the family’s, of a man denied water and medical care as he lay dying and the police’s, of a timely ambulance and a death in hospital – remain unreconciled. What is not in dispute is the outcome: Aziz did not survive.

His death drew a swift response from the Majlis Bachao Tehreek (MBT). Its spokesperson, Amjed Ullah Khan, said Aziz had been “beaten to death and brought dead to the hospital,” and appealed to Hyderabad Police Commissioner VC Sajjanar to order an inquiry.

For now, the case sits at an uneasy intersection: a child’s alleged assault, a crowd that took punishment into its own hands and a family’s charge that the state’s own machinery failed a man in its care.