HC disposes plea as AAP MLA released after 10hr detention

Three days after an outsourced 28-year-old sanitation worker was stabbed to death in east Delhi’s Kalyanpuri while he was on duty, his family has alleged that his body was cremated by the Delhi Police without their consent in the early hours of Tuesday, after coercing a distant relative to sign off on the necessary documents

Three days after an outsourced 28-year-old sanitation worker was stabbed to death in east Delhi’s Kalyanpuri while he was on duty, his family has alleged that his body was cremated by the Delhi Police without their consent in the early hours of Tuesday, after coercing a distant relative to sign off on the necessary documents.

The family said they were unaware that a post-mortem examination had been conducted

Gautam Chander, 35, a cousin of the victim, Anil Kumar, said that seven Delhi Police officers visited the residence of the victim’s sister, Sunita, and forced her brother-in-law to accompany them to claim the body. “They forced Sunita’s brother-in-law Suraj to come with them and sign the documents because they knew that Anil’s father and brother will not agree. They took his signature and after about an hour, brought the body to the family’s residence in Khoda,” Chander said.

The family said they were unaware that a post-mortem examination had been conducted. For the next five to six hours, the family members protested the move by the Delhi Police. “Eventually, several political leaders reached there to pressure the family for cremation. The body had also started smelling; so, we cremated him around 2pm at the Hindon cremation ground,” Chander said.

However, police denied keeping the family in the dark. “(We were trying to make) father and brother of Anil understand that three days had passed and they should take the body but they were not ready. Therefore, we took Anil’s brother-in-law Suraj for the formalities,” said a senior police officer, on the condition of anonymity.

On Sunday morning, Anil Kumar, a resident of Ghaziabad, was working as a helper of a municipal corporation garbage pickup vehicle when he was attacked. Police said the accused had a personal dispute with the vehicle driver, Gulshan Kumar, reportedly over his interaction with his wife. He may have mistakenly attacked Anil as both of them bore a close resemblance, police said. The incident was captured on a CCTV camera in the vicinity, and the accused, Nihal, 40, was arrested on Monday.

In a related development, police also detained Aam Aadmi Party MLA Kuldeep Kumar around 5am from his residence in east Delhi and released him around 3.30pm for allegedly trying to “disrupt law and order”.

The police officer quoted above said that Kumar was “legally detained” under Section 65 of the Delhi Police Act because he was calling for a chakka jam on the NH-24 and asking people to spill garbage on the roads. “He was also instigating the family to continue the protest,” the officer said.

However, Kumar said, “I was kept in custody for 14–15 hours, and my family had no information about me either. My only crime was raising my voice for justice for sanitation worker Anil. Plainclothes policemen barged into my home, broke the CCTV and even took away the DVR... We demand that Anil Bhai’s family be given ₹1 crore compensation and a government job to one member.”

AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal said, “If a sitting MLA can be picked up from his home by the police in this manner, without any information or reason, then where is the ‘aam aadmi’ supposed to go in this country?”

Meanwhile, Delhi BJP media head Praveen Shankar Kapoor said that it is extremely unfortunate that the entire AAP leadership politicised the murder of a sanitation worker employed by a private company and attempted to link a murder committed due to personal reasons with the Delhi government and the municipal corporation.