Seven personnel of Uttar Pradesh police have been exonerated in connection with an alleged custodial death in October 2019 in Pilakhuwa area of Hapur, officials said.
An FIR lodged by Kuldeep alias Tejpal alleged his elder brother Pradeep Tomar died on the intervening night of October 13-14, 2019, after he was tortured by DSP Santosh Mishra, Pilakhuwa SHO Yogesh Baliyan, Sub-Inspector Ajab Singh, and four unnamed policemen.
At that time, the police had said the security guard from Lakhan village was never taken into custody but was called to the Chhijarsi police post in Pilakhuwa for questioning in connection with a murder case.
A video of Pradeep’s body being examined by locals had gone viral where they could be seen pointing to the blackening of his posterior and stab marks on arms and abdomen. In another video, his 10-year-old son alleged that his father was tortured in his presence by policemen.
Hapur Superintendent of Police Sanjeev Suman said, “The police investigation didn’t find the officials guilty. We submitted the closure report in March. And just before the lockdown, the family members, including Pradeep’s son, recorded their statements in front of the magistrate wherein they absolved the policemen of the charges. The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Hapur, accepted the closure report and exonerated the policemen,” he told The Hindu.
According to Mr. Suman, both the brothers were called to the police post in connection with a murder case in which Pradeep was an accused. “Along the way, he met with an accident as his bike hit a milkman’s vehicle near the Chhijarsi toll plaza. They had a fight in which he got injured. It was the policemen who helped by taking him to a local hospital and later to Meerut. However, the family chose to hold them guilty. When we produced witnesses of the accident and the fracas, they changed their statement.”
He said the post mortem report was inconclusive on the cause of death. On why the police didn’t proceed against the family for lodging a false FIR against police officers, Additional Superintendent of Police Sarvesh Mishra said, “It was not a case of Section 181 of IPC (perjury). It was about a false impression of the sequence of events. The family was mistaken.”
Kuldeep Tomar, the deceased’s brother, didn’t respond to queries.
