Salman Khan house firing: Anuj Thapan’s family demands CBI probe into custodial death

Anuj Thapan was one of the four men arrested in connection with the firing incident outside actor Salman Khan’s house. The 32-year-old allegedly died by suicide while in the Mumbai crime branch’s custody

MUMBAI: The family and close relatives of Anuj Thapan, an accused arrested in connection with the firing at actor Salman Khan’s house who died by suicide while in the Mumbai crime branch’s custody, have refused to accept the body, claiming it could be a murder.

Salman Khan house firing: Anuj Thapan’s family demands CBI probe into custodial death

Thapan’s maternal grandfather Jaswant Singh, maternal uncle Kuldeep Vishnoi, and cousin brother Vikram Thapan arrived in the city on Thursday along with a lawyer and demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the death.

Vikram Thapan said Anuj’s mother and younger brother are still in shock, and have asked the family not to take his body until a CBI investigation is done and action taken.

“The Mumbai police have been pressuring us to take Anuj’s body. They took us for identification of the body but only showed us his face and not the entire body. Looking at the marks on Anuj’s neck, it is clear that he has been murdered. It does not seem like a suicide incident. There is a round mark on his neck,” he said.

Vikram added that the Mumbai police did not inform the family when they arrested Anuj in Punjab on April 23 and took him to Mumbai. The police only called the family on May 1 to inform them that Anuj had died by suicide, he said.

The family is also demanding authorities to hand over Anuj’s entire medical report, including the postmortem and inquest panchnama. Advocate Paramhans Dixit, who is representing Anuj Thapan’s family, said the hospital authorities have reserved the cause of death in the postmortem report and are not sharing all medical papers with them. “If they can share it with the state CID, then why not with us? And why is the cause of death being kept reserved?” he said.

A Mumbai crime branch officer denied the allegation that they were pressurising Anuj’s family members to take his body. “The state CID has been investigating the case, so there is no concern with the crime branch to deal with the family,” the officer said, adding that no injury marks have been found on Anuj’s body as per the postmortem.

Anuj Thapan was one of the four men arrested in connection with the firing incident outside actor Salman Khan’s house. The 32-year-old was arrested from Punjab on April 26, brought to Mumbai and then lodged in a common lock-up along with 11 others arrested for various crimes.