Acquitted history-sheeter now aids other falsely-accused

By Neha and Sahana

Mangaluru: The creaking sound of the main door or even a knock during the late evening hours, continues to torment Mohammed Kabir and his family. Despite this, the 47-year old truck driver fought a successful battle to prove his innocence at the Karnataka High Court and got his name cleared from the ‘registered rowdies list’ of Mangaluru City Police.

Arbitrarily summoned to the local Ullal police station, he faced loss of his income and respect. “Though I was innocent, I was stripped and mercilessly beaten till the bones in my left hand cracked. However, they could not break my resolve to prove my innocence,” he said.

The colonial ter m ‘history-sheeter’ is used to document the long list of crimes of an individual. The same can be equated to ‘rap-sheet’ in US parlance. According to legal experts, local jurisdictional police book habitual offenders or hardened criminals defined under Sections 107 and 110 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) or Karnataka Habitual Offenders Act-1961.

Recently the Karnataka High Court, while disposing of the B S Prakash vs State of Karnataka, issued guidelines to the Karnataka State Police to follow due procedure before entering the name of an individual in the register of rowdies / history sheeter. “This move comes as a ray of hope to several others who despite their innocence continue to languish at lock-ups at local-police stations and become victims of police excesses,” Kabir said.

First brush with police Kabir’s first brush with the police took place in 2008 when he allegedly objected to paying bribes to a police officer at Belagavi. “I had my documents intact. Despite this, they acted with highhandedness. I recorded their interaction on the mobile. Irked by this, the police officials took me into custody and beat me up,” he said.

A former cop of the Ullal Police station, who is aware of the development, said that a few police personnel target individuals or social activists, who cause inconvenience by their ‘unlawful’ or overreaching actions. “Since Kabir hails from a minority community it was easy to detain him knowing he will not have a majoritarian or political backing,” he said.

Tough time
Between 2008 to 2011, Mohammed Kabir had to spend over four lakh rupees on advocates, travel, police, courts and other case related expenses. “I even had to sell my truck to make up for the legal expenses that were piling up,” he said. During the period, Kabir, who had returned from Saudi Arabia, lost job opportunities abroad and also local business prospectus.

Until last December, the number of rowdy sheeters in the Mangaluru Commissionarate stood at 3,263. Following this, the Mangaluru City Police hosted a programme called ‘Parivarthaa Sabhe’ (transformation programme) in 2021. “We have cleared the names of 1,256 rowdy-sheeters from the history sheets on account of their good behaviour,” Mangaluru City Police Commissioner N Shashi Kumar told the media.

Commenting on the recent guidelines issued by the Karnataka High Court, Advocate Dinesh Hegde Ullepadi said, “There are cases when the police have filed cases with great bias. Several people who are listed as rowdies don’t even know that their names are in the register. The new guidelines will only help to set the records straight,” Ullepadi said.

Meanwhile, for almost 13 years, Kabir has continued to pursue private counter-complaint against police officials who had falsely booked a case against him. “For me, this case is important to gain lost respect in the society that was taken away from me for no fault of mine. People must also know that the rule of law is equal and balanced both for people, police or even politicians,” he said.