Andhra Pradesh police selectively targeted Muslims after Kadapa incident: Report
New Delhi: A New Delhi-based civil rights organization has said that police in Andhra Pradesh state carried out discriminatory crackdowns against Muslims, including unlawful detentions, custodial violence and selective prosecution, following communal unrest earlier this month.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) in a fact-finding report said its investigation found evidence of systematic targeting of Muslims during and after violence at Almaspet Circle in Kadapa city on May 9. Titled “Selective Justice: Detention, Torture, and Religious Targeting,” the report is based on field visits, witness testimonies, interviews with affected families, and examination of police complaints, remand documents and other official records.
The report said tensions erupted after competing campaigns to rename a traffic circle in Kadapa after either 18th-century Muslim ruler and anti-colonial figure Tipu Sultan or Hindu idol Hanuman. It added that the situation escalated after Hindu right-wing groups installed unauthorised “Hanuman Circle” banners despite an earlier municipal proposal favouring “Tipu Sultan Circle.”
Rejecting official accounts describing the unrest as a routine “clash between two communities,” APCR said police action reflected patterns of religious profiling and unequal enforcement targeting Muslims. It said that at least 25 Muslim minors were detained and beaten without safeguards under India’s juvenile justice laws, while 22 Muslim men were illegally detained for several days without warrants and subjected to custodial assault.
Victims and witnesses interviewed by the organization described beatings, intimidation and denial of legal protections while in custody, the report said.
The fact-finding team further found that Muslim residents faced harsher criminal charges, including serious non-bailable offenses, while non-Muslim individuals accused in connection with the unrest were booked under comparatively lighter sections of law.
It further said that police carried out aggressive baton charges inside Muslim-majority neighborhoods even after crowds had dispersed, calling it punitive and collective targeting. APCR also said that the administration did not act swiftly against provocative mobilization by Hindu nationalist groups.
Calling for accountability, the organisation demanded an independent judicial or magisterial inquiry, review of cases involving minors, forensic examination of CCTV footage and police records, and action against officials involved in custodial violence and discriminatory conduct, warning that continued impunity could deepen communal polarisation and erode public trust in state institutions.
