40-yr-old man dies in custody, eight Ghaziabad cops suspended

A 40-year-old man, who was picked up by police from his residence at Dasna and allegedly subjected to excessive torture for two days at the Kavi Nagar police station, died on Saturday.

A 40-year-old man, who was picked up by police from his residence at Dasna and allegedly subjected to excessive torture for two days at the Kavi Nagar police station, died on Saturday.

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The parents of deceased Shakeel Chaudhary said that he became the victim of mistaken identity. “About 10 police personnel came to my house on June 13 around 10.30am. They were searching for a person with similar name and when my son told them his name, they picked him up and lodged him inside lock-up where he was tortured and beaten severely,” Shakeel’s father Khaleel Chaudhary said.

Eight police personnel, including station house officer of the Kavi Nagar police station Sudhir Tyagi, have been suspended in the case. An FIR under Sections 302 (murder), 342 (wrongful confinement), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 147 (rioting) and 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon) of the IPC have been registered.

According to police, Shakeel, a father of six children, died in the wee hours of Saturday when he was being taken to Farrukhabad in connection with an auto-theft case.

Suddenly, he developed pain in his abdomen and was taken to a hospital but died mid-way, police said. Shakeel worked as driver of a milk van.

The victim’s father said his son had no health complication in the past. “At 8pm on Friday, when I visited my son, he told me that he was beaten up severely by the policemen. On Saturday morning, I got information of his death from an advocate. The police did not inform us directly,” Khaleel said.

Police officers have denied the allegations and said Shakeel was picked up only on Friday and some vehicles had to be recovered at his instance from Farrukkhabad.

“Shakeel was not lodged in the lock-up. When police picked him up and took him towards Farrukhabad, he developed some abdominal pain after which he was admitted him to a private hospital at Kavi Nagar. Then he was referred to another hospital. He was alright and even walked on foot but later died mid-way,” senior superintendent of police (SSP) Nitin Tiwari told HT.