50-yr-old tortured for information in Panipat police station; dies. FIR filed

Panipat district SP Shashank Kumar Sawan said the preliminary investigation into the death of Ayub Khan indicated that he died of torture in police custody.

KARNAL: A 50-year-old man, a distant relative of a man accused of kidnapping a 22-year-old woman for marriage, died after he was tortured by a police officer and the woman’s family at Panipat’s Quila police station, the district superintendent of police Shashank Kumar Sawan said on Tuesday evening.

The Panipat police officer investigating the kidnapping for marriage case is being probed along with two other men for murdering the relative of a suspect.

Sawan said a preliminary investigation indicated that Ayub Khan died due to torture in police custody. Assistant sub inspector Dharamvir has been taken into custody, he said.

Police officials associated with the inquiry into the death said Ayub Khan was a distant relative of Irshad, 25, who was named as a suspect in a First Information Report (FIR).

According to the FIR filed on a complaint by the woman’s family, Irshad Khan kidnapped the woman for marriage on May 27. They lived in the same locality.

On Tuesday, ASI Dharamvir, who was investigating the case, is alleged to have called Irashad’s relatives and friends to trace him

Ayub Khan’s family told the police that he was among those called by the police station and was tortured by the officer and relatives of the woman. He was being interrogated on the roof of the police station building and died around 6.30pm, they said.

He was taken to the district’s civil hospital where he was declared brought dead.

Panipat deputy superintendent of police Satish Kumar Vats said the ASI and two relatives of the woman, Sumit and Sunil, have been taken into custody.

Vats said the three have been booked for murder.

There were injury marks on Ayub Khan’s body, he said, adding that they were waiting for the autopsy report before detailing the injuries that led to his death.