Amid stir over African’s death in custody, police intensify crackdown

Twenty four hours after the death of a Congolese national in police custody, Bengaluru police have begun tracking those who held a protest outside the police station

Twenty four hours after the death of a Congolese national in police custody, Bengaluru police have begun tracking those who held a protest outside the police station. Police said the protest was illegal and policemen were attacked by the protestors.

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The death of the 27-year-old Congolese man in police custody has sparked outrage among the African community in the city. The deceased, Joel Shindani Malu, who worked under the alias Jon, according to police, was arrested by the JC Nagar police on Sunday, on the charges of selling banned narcotics. He died in police custody the same night.

Even though the staff of the JC Nagar police are under investigation by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), these officers continued to be part of the probe against those who held a protest against the custodial death. Bengaluru police commissioner Kamal Pant said the police have not found any reasons for placing any of the JC Nagar police staff under suspension, so far. “If we get any direction from CID to place any officer under suspension, we will look at it,” he said.

According to police, he died due to cardiac arrest while in custody, following which, a protest was held by some members of the African community on Monday morning in front of the police station. This resulted in a scuffle between police and protesters, resulting in policemen and protesters getting injured.

“Regarding this incident, there are two cases registered. The first case is as per the complaint by our police sub-inspector Latha and in the second case, some of the African nationals who ran from the police station had pushed a person. Since that person is injured, we have registered a case in this regard as well,” said Dharmender Kumar Meena, deputy commissioner of police, north.

One police inspector and two sub-inspectors have been given charge of conducting the investigation. Following the incident, on Tuesday, police have begun a crackdown on African nationals to identify those who are overstaying in Bengaluru.

DCP Meena said that police are going through the video recordings of Monday’s protest, to identify those who took part in it. “We will check the documents of everyone who was seen in the video. We will verify how many of them have legal documents with them. Whoever is found without relevant documents will be booked under the Passport Act,” DCP Meena said.

The police have conducted urine tests of the five people arrested for the protests on Monday. The urine tests were conducted, as the arrested people refused to provide blood samples. The officers said that out of the five, one person was found to have consumed illegal narcotics.

Reacting to the incident, Karnataka chief minister Basvaraj Bommai said that police acted in the right manner. “Drug trafficking has been rampant, and those involved are thus being arrested. They had a violent attitude and therefore, police action was taken. When they needlessly attacked the police, our police took action in the right manner,” Bommai said.