New Delhi: A Muslim youth who had been called in for questioning by the UP police was found dead at the Kotwali police station in UP’s Kasanj district on Tuesday, November 9, the Indian Express reported.
Altaf , 22, was taken by the police from his home in Ahirauli village in connection with a case of a 16-year-old Hindu girl who had gone missing. The girl’s family had accused Altaf of kidnapping her and the police had registered a case under IPC Sections 363 (kidnapping) and 366 (inducing woman to compel her to marry), the Print reported.
Botre Rohan Pramod, Kasanj superintendent of police (SP), claimed that, during the police interrogation, Altaf excused himself to go to the bathroom. When police personnel found that he had not returned after some time, they went to check on him and found him “sprawled, with his neck tied to the tap.” According to the police, Altaf died by suicide after hanging himself from a tap in the bathroom using the drawstring from the hood of his jacket.
Pramod claimed that Altaf was breathing when the officers found him and was thus rushed to the nearby Community Health Centre, however, he did not survive. The police even claimed that the autopsy report showed death by hanging and alleged that Altaf’s family had, in writing, submitted to the police that the 22-year-old was suffering from depression.
Altaf’s family, however, refuted the possibility of his death by suicide, pointing out that the tap which the police claimed Altaf had hung himself from stood only two or three feet off the ground.
Chand Mian, Altaf’s father had, on Tuesday night accused the police of killing his son. He noted that the police had taken Altaf from his house and when Mian went to visit him, he was turned away. The next day, the police claimed that Altaf had hung himself. ”It was the police that hanged my son,” he said.
However, in a later video he claims that he had been angry when he made those allegations and that, after speaking to the police and doctors, he was “satisfied” with the police’s actions. Mian, like Altaf, works as a labourer.
Shakir Ali, Altaf’s uncle, noted that as poor people, the family did not have the resources to pursue the case. “He was alive and well when we met him… We don’t know what happened later,” he was quoted as saying in the Indian Express report.
However, following the incident, five police personnel: station house officer (SHO) Virendra Singh, two sub-inspectors and two constables, were suspended on charges of negligence. Moreover, the doctor in charge at the hospital where Altaf was taken could not be contacted.
Additional superintendent of police (ASP) Anil Kumar Singh is now looking into Altaf’s death and a magisterial inquiry has been ordered.
How did Altaf know the missing girl?
Altaf had been hired by the missing girl’s family as a labourer five months prior, when they were having some construction work done at their house. Thereafter, Pramod claimed that Altaf had told the police that he and the girl were having an affair, but had subsequently fallen out. He also noted that there was evidence of this. What’s more, sources said that the girl’s family had shared a video of her with Altaf with the police.
The girl’s family denied that she knew Altaf. Ali, too, claimed that Altaf had nothing to do with the girl’s disappearance despite reported mobile phone records showing that they had been in touch.
Pramod responded to allegations of police torture by saying that the Kotwali police station is a busy thana located near the city centre and it would have been impossible for Altaf to be beaten without any witnesses seeing.
He also noted that if the family was not satisfied with the police account, a case will be filed against the policemen.
The 16-year-old girl is still missing.
This story first appeared on thewire.in