Delhi: 2 cops suspended as businessman falls ‘ill’, dies at police station

The family of the deceased, Kulbhushan Chaturvedi, has accused the investigators of “mentally harassing” the man leading to his demise.

A 43-year-old businessman died after suddenly falling ill at the Keshavpuram police station, north-west Delhi, in the early hours of Wednesday. The man was in the police station for questioning about his alleged involvement in a street brawl.

Kulbhushan Chaturvedi.

The family of the deceased, Kulbhushan Chaturvedi, has accused the investigators of “mentally harassing” the man leading to his death.

“The interrogators mocked him when he fell sick and did not rush him to the hospital after he collapsed,” said Chandrabhushan, brother of the deceased. However, the family said the police did not beat up Chaturvedi.

“Our friends rushed him to Fortis Hospital in Shalimar Bagh,” Chandrabhushan said, adding that he was not allowed to accompany his brother.

Kulbhushan and Chandrabhushan were rounded up late on Tuesday night for fighting with their neighbours over parking space, the police said. But the Chaturvedi family told Hindustan Times the fight started because some drunk neighbours were creating a ruckus.

The argument soon led to a scuffle in which Kulbhushan was accused of hitting the neighbour’s 16-year-old son in the eye. Both families called the police who whisked them away a little after midnight.

Chandrabhushan alleged that all through the interrogation, the PCR staff and the local police “threatened to beat and lock up” Kulbhushan. “The policemen snatched our phones and harassed us. They behaved so badly that my brother suddenly fell sick around 1.30am. He pleaded for water...by the time someone got water, he collapsed,” he said.

A source at the hospital said Kulbhushan was dead when he was brought in around 2.30 am. “Doctors tried to resuscitate the man, but could not. The cause of death appears to be cardiac arrest. But there were faint strangulation marks on the man’s neck,” said the source.

The police have registered an FIR under IPC section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) against the people with whom he was fighting. “His brother alleged that the other group had tried to strangulate him during the scuffle,” Delhi Police chief spokesperson Dependra Pathak said.

Meanwhile, two assistant sub-inspectors, including the officer investigating the brawl, were suspended after Kulbhushan’s death, Pathak . “Autopsy will be conducted in presence of a medical board,” he said.

“The policemen have been suspended for not handling the case with professional policing acumen,” Pathak told Hindustan Times. He, however, stressed that disciplinary action was taken for the policemen’s handling of the PCR calls.

The probe has been handed over to the crime branch.