A suspended police constable, who is accused of beating a teenage vegetable vendor to death in Unnao’s Bangarmau area on Friday, was arrested on Monday afternoon, according to the Unnao police.
The arrest of Vijay Chowdhary comes a day after a sacked home guard jawan, Satyaprakash, was arrested in the same case. Another police constable Simavat, the third accused in the case, is yet to be arrested. While Satyaprakash was sacked after the teen’s death, the two constables were suspended.
After Chowdhary’s arrest, a Unnao police team left for Lucknow to seek permission for a DNA sample test from additional director general of police (Lucknow zone) SN Sabat. Sabat was not available for comment. But people familiar with the issue said the police had taken the clothes and shoes worn by the constable on the day of incident into custody. Forensic experts would lift the DNA samples and they would be matched with that taken from the vendor’s body, said a senior officer.
The DNA matching, the officer claimed, was imperative to build a strong case against the constables.
{{/usCountry}}The DNA matching, the officer claimed, was imperative to build a strong case against the constables.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, Satyaprakash was interrogated for about 30 minutes and sent to the Unnao jail. Replying to the two-three questions put to him, the home guard said the vendor was forcibly taken from his shop and brought to the police station sandwiched between him and constable Vijay Chowdhary.
“As we reached the police station, the vendor slumped to the ground, everyone got scared,” he said, according to officials privy to his interrogation. His version of the teen being taken away by force is corroborated by the footage from CCTV camera, which was installed opposite his shop.
The footage shows Chowdhary and Prakash arriving on a motorcycle and stopping a metre away from the shop. Chowdhary is seen gesturing to the vendor to come and the vendor follows the instruction. Then, Chowdhary is seen slapping him thrice with force and compelling him to sit on the motorcycle.
The home guard, on his part, has denied beating the teen inside the police station. But the vendor’s family insists he was assaulted inside the police station where his condition deteriorated.
The home guard’s denial was in line with the police station CCTV footage, which was mysteriously released a day after the death on Saturday. According to the footage, the vendor apparently was allowed to go back, but he had difficulty walking and nearly fell at the gates. Policemen are seen attending him and carrying him away.
The CCTV footage raises doubts as no camera number is seen, nor is there any mention of time and date, those privy to the issue indicated. Unnao district magistrate Ravindra Kumar said the police were looking into who released the footage and whether it was edited.
The vendor’s father alleged that his son was beaten up in the police station and the footage was deliberately produced to refute this allegation.
“Then where else was he beaten up? The post-mortem has found 14 injuries, the one on the back of the ear was fatal,” he said.
His mother was inconsolable and said her son was handed over to her and a relative in an unconscious state at the police station.
“We took him to the hospital in a battery rickshaw that we arranged. The policemen did nothing,” she alleged. According to people familiar with the issue, the release of the footage has raised more questions than answers.
None of the policemen present in the Bangarmau police station on the day had been questioned yet, according to them.
“It has been two days since the investigation was transferred to the crime branch and they haven’t been questioned,” they said.