Times of India: Hyderabad: Thursday,
May 26, 2016.
The south
zone police have opened a staggering 164 rowdy sheets since last January,
revealed information under the Right to Information Act. But what is alarming
is the fact that more than half of the "culprits" are below the age
of 25, and some are teenagers, who experts say deserved counselling.
Explaining
what prompted him to file the query, RTI activist Mohammed Abdul Akram
associated with Yugantar, a NGO, who sought a reply from the office of the
south zone deputy commissioner of police V Satyanarayana, said that observers
were concerned about the number of youth who are taking to a life of crime. The
data includes all rowdy sheets that have been opened from January 1, 2015 to
April 7, this year.
The reply
showed that there are at least 70 youth under the age of 25 against whom rowdy
sheets have been opened. Of these, at least eight are 19 years old. One such
case is that of Syed Bakhteyar Agha Quraishi, a repeat offender. A resident of
SRT Colony. A rowdy sheet was opened against him on March 18 at the Rein Bazar
police station. According to SZ police, Quraishi, who is said to be absconding,
he was involved in murder case when he was a minor. After committing another
serious offence, a rowdy sheet was opened against him.
The reply
indicated that several of these youth are either unemployed or are daily wage
earners and have dropped out of college. Case in point: Mohammed Owais, 19,
alias Owais Patel, a resident of Aman Nagar. The records show Owais as
"inter failed". The south zone police also booked 40 offenders under
the Preventive Detention Act as they had failed to mend their ways. Of this fi
gure, 19 are under the age of 25 with several less than 30years old. These
youth found their names on the list along with notorious muscle man Hamza bin
Omer alias Zafar Pahalwan.
Pegging the reason
for a life of crime to a lack of education, additional deputy commissioner of
police K Babu Rao said, "It is known that access to education in the Old
City is less when compared to other areas. The youth against whom rowdy sheets
have been opened are not bothered about the consequences of their
actions."
But regular
counselling can desist youth from indulging in criminal activities, he
explained. "This counselling has to be done not only by police but by
religious heads and other experts as well.It should be a multi-pronged
approach," Rao said. Commenting on the issue, noted activist Mazher
Hussain said that cops should identify such elements at an early stage and send
them for counselling to responsible people before the youth start emulating
"wrong role models"."From here it is the job of religious
leaders and activists to create the right role models for these youth instead
of the neighbourhood strongman. The cops are ill equipped to do social
counselling. It is the job of family, the school and then society," he
said.
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