Stressing Altaf could not have committed suicide, his family pointed out that the pipe police said he had hanged himself from was at a height of just two-three feet.
AMN / WEB DESK
Political row has erupted over the death of a youth who ws called for questioning at Kasganj police station in Kasganj district of Uttar Pradesh in a kidnapping case.
The opposition Samajwadi Party attacked the Yogi Adityanath government for ‘yet another custodial death’. The party took to Twitter to attack the Yogi Adityanath government, calling the incident another misdeed of UP”s “thoko (trigger-happy) police”.
Kasganj custody Death: Postmortem report says hanging as cause of death
“In UP, under the patronage of the chief minister, criminal and police are committing an encounter of law and order. The guilty policemen should face a murder case and must be punished,” the party said in a tweet in Hindi.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi has also commented on the suspicious death of the youth who died in the custody of Sadar Kotwali of Kasganj in Uttar Pradesh.
Priyanka said, “We have sent a delegation to Kasganj. After looking at the report and the situation, we will comment on this further.”
According to police, Altaf, 21, had strangulated himself using a string from his jacket hood in the washroom of the police lock-up.
“One Altaf (of Nagla Syed locality) was called for questioning in Kasganj police station in a case related to IPC section 363 (kidnapping) and 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing a woman to compel her marriage) on Tuesday morning,” narrating the sequence of events, Superintendent of Police, Kasganj, Rohan Pramod Botre said on Wednesday.
During interrogation, he requested the policemen to go to the washroom and was allowed to use the washroom inside the lock-up. “He was wearing a black colour jacket. He tried to strangulate himself with a string on the (jacket) hood that he tied to the tap of the toilet. When he did not return for some time, the policemen went inside and found him unconscious. He was rushed to the community health centre, Ashok Nagar in Kasganj, where he died,” the SP added.
Postmortem of the victim is being conducted, he said, adding that five policemen have been suspended for negligence in the wake of the incident.
“The lax policemen will be punished. We have suspended five policemen in this connection,” he said.
However, Altaf’s family members alleged that he was killed by police inside the lock-up.
The incident comes close on the heels of a sanitation worker, who was accused of stealing Rs 25 lakh from Jagdishpura police station in Agra, dying in police custody after his health deteriorated during interrogation.
MAYAWATI SEEKS PROBE INTO CUSTODIAL DEATH
BSP president Mayawati on Thursday sought a high-level inquiry into the “shameful” death of a youth in police custody in Kasganj district and slammed the Uttar Pradesh government for its alleged failure to prevent custodial deaths.
In a tweet, the BSP president said, “Death of another youth in police custody in Kasganj is very sad and shameful. The government should give strict punishment to the culprits by conducting a high-level inquiry into the incident and also help the victim’s family.”
“It is a matter of great concern that the Uttar Pradesh government is proving to be a failure in preventing deaths in custody,” she added.
It was a murder : Owaisi
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi has alleged that this was not a case of suicide but murder and the police official should be arrested.
Owaisi said “Tell me one thing, can anyone die by suicide by using a water tap at a height of less than 4 feet with his clothes? How can anyone kill oneself like this? You can kill him, you can strangle him. If he dies in police custody then they should not be suspended but arrested.”