A fruit seller was beaten up allegedly by some policemen on Friday after he asked them to pay for the watermelon that they had eaten at his stall.
Muhammad Tanveer, who sells fruit near the Ferozewala bridge, said that some Ferozewala police station officials came to his cart and ate watermelon there.
He said when they got up to leave, he asked them for the money. He said they took him to a police post, where they beat him up.
He said someone informed his mother, who visited the police station to request them to let him go. When she came there, he said, they abused her and told her to leave. He said they registered a false case against him.
Police said Tanveer was an extortionist and that other vendors had complained against him.
When asked about the bruises on Tanveer’s body, they said he had tried to flee and was injured in the struggle to pin him down.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 18th, 2013.