E-Paper
Uttarakhand: Cops among 4 held over suspicion of beating tribal man to death
Dharmendra Singh, the complainant and the employer of the man, alleged the four thrashed his driver Kheem Singh to death on March 20
Two policemen and as many forest officials have been detained for allegedly beating a 23-year-old tribal man to death in Uttarakhand’s Munsiyari.
Dharmendra Singh, the complainant and the employer of the man, alleged the four thrashed his driver Kheem Singh to death on March 20.
He added they were on their way to Munsiyari when the four stopped their vehicle and started harassing them. “They started abusing the driver and beating him. They were in an intoxicated state and physically assaulted him...he died on the spot. Without informing his family members, they took him to a nearby community health centre where doctors declared him dead.”
Narendra Pant, a local police officer, said they stopped Dharmendra Singh’s vehicle after they were informed about timber smuggling and began the procedure to seize it. “But the driver of the vehicle did not hand over the keys of the vehicle and started running away. He subsequently fell into a ditch. He was taken to the health centre where he was declared dead.”
On Tuesday, a protest was held outside the centre seeking action against police and forest officials. The protest delayed Kheem Singh’s postmortem since protesters did not allow police to take the body to Pithoragarh for it.
A case was later registered against Trilok Singh Rana, Ramesh Rana (forest officials), Sunil Kumar, and Manoj Bhatt (policemen) under Indian Penal Code’s Section 302 (murder) and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Police superintendent Lokeshwer Singh said the accused have been detained. “The post-mortem of the driver is underway at the Pithoragarh district hospital... on the basis of its report, we will take further action.”
