Every time the call of duty came in August 2024, Salman Qureshi answered. He was there when the police in Indore needed an independent witness to round up men drinking in public. He was there when the police busted men gambling in abandoned homes. He was there when the police arrested men smoking cannabis behind trucks. And he was present once more in the early hours of September 1 when the police stopped a young law intern returning home with a friend after visiting an ailing relative.

This intern was allegedly beaten and stripped by Chandan Nagar police station in Indore, who accused him of riding his motorbike under the influence of alcohol. For the next few months, he spent his time investigating how and why men like Salman Qureshi were miraculously available whenever Chandan Nagar police needed an independent witness.

Last November, 24-year-old Asad Ali Warsi placed his findings before the Supreme Court, which observed that the Indore police’s practice of repeating witnesses, “could be termed anathema to a country governed by the rule of law, like ours.”

An accusation that didn’t add up

Warsi, a resident of Indore’s Green Park Colony, had paid a late-night visit on August 31, 2024, to his ailing maternal aunt. On that ride to Kadhav Ghat in the centre of the city, Warsi was accompanied by his friend Arbaaz Sheikh. It was well past midnight when the boys finally set out for home after scouring several pharmacies in search of medicine. At 1.15 am, Warsi said, a group of constables conducting late-night bandobast duties near the police station asked them to stop.

Warsi alleged that two constables accused him of riding drunk and demanded a bribe of Rs 5,000 to let them go.

“I told them that I am not drunk. I don’t even drink alcohol. I asked them to test me with a breathalyser but they insisted that I come with them to the police station. I refused,” Warsi, who is now a full-time lawyer, told Newslaundry. 

However, the constables were not equipped with a breathalyser. As the standoff continued, Warsi rang the lawyer he was interning with to apprise him of the situation. He also began recording the argument on his phone.

Warsi claimed that the constables ordered him to stop filming. Then, one constable allegedly grabbed Warsi from behind, causing him to drop his phone, while the other slapped his left cheek.

“My phone was shattered,” he said.

The constables then took the boys to the police station and then to a government hospital, where Warsi claimed a doctor drew a blood sample under pressure from the police.

“I told the doctor that the police had beaten me and asked him to note down the injuries. But he only wrote that my left ear hurt,” Warsi recounted.

The doctor found no traces of alcohol in Warsi’s blood sample. Nor did he smell alcohol on Warsi’s breath, the hospital records show.

The boys were taken back to the police station, where the police booked Warsi for the likelihood of disturbing peace and tranquillity. Local residents Amir Rangrez and Salman Qureshi were named as witnesses to the incident. Warsi was allegedly stripped and detained inside the police station and only released the next day.

His priority was retrieving the data from his damaged phone.

“I took the phone to a showroom. I needed to recover the videos, no matter what it took,” he said. Then he prepared to contest the police’s charges.  

The charges against Warsi were heard before the court of the local assistant commissioner of police and executive magistrate. The police argued that Warsi abused the constables who asked him to undergo a blood test and “became ready to fight and assault”. It became necessary to arrest Warsi, the police claimed, because he “indulged in high-volume and unnecessary arguments” and refused to comply with orders.

The court examined the videos that Warsi had recorded and found insufficient evidence for the case to go to trial. On December 17, 2024, the court........

© newslaundry