Hyderabad, Aug 6 - Many years after the colonial 'orderly' system was abolished in the Andhra Pradesh police department, hundreds of constables and home guards are reduced to working as servants in the homes of senior officers. They are recruited to serve society but end up serving their higher-ups as domestic helps, cooks, drivers or gardeners.

They often suffer abuse and are even sent outside the state to serve the families of police officials.

The death of 40-year-old P. Muralinath, a constable of the State Armed Reserve who was working for no less than Additional Director General of Police Vivek Dube who heads the state's anti-terror force Octopus, under suspicious circumstances near Gwalior last week, has brought such feudal traditions that date back probably to colonial times into sharp focus.

Muralinath's wife Kaleswari alias Kavita claimed her husband spoke to her over phone on July 28, complaining of physical and mental harassment at Dube's house.

'My husband was asked to clean toilets. He told me that he was denied food and water and was made to drink his own urine. It was not a natural death. He was murdered,' she said in her petition before the state human rights commission.

Muralinath, who had been working at Dube's Noida residence, was found dead near Gwalior July 30. He was buried there the next day as an unclaimed body but his family living here was informed after his mobile phone without the SIM card was recovered in Jaithpur village.

The rights panel has sought a report from the government, which has already ordered a probe by a three-member committee.

However, from Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy to Home Minister P. Sabita Indra Reddy, no one has an answer as to why and how constables and home guards are being used as orderlies despite the system having been abolished in 2003.

'How can a constable working here be sent to work in Delhi? If IAS (administrative) officers have no such facility, why should IPS (police) officers have it?' Rajasekhara Reddy asked officials at a meeting.

A clause in the AP Police Manual enables IPS officers to have constables and head constables to assist them in the discharge of their duties. But it is misused.

'Life is hell for us. They treat us worse than their servants. We are asked to wash clothes, cook food, go to the market to buy ration and vegetables, drop children to school, take their family members for outings and attend other domestic chores.