Police issued notice after suspect alleges torture

Following an application by the lawyer of the 19-year-old arrested in connection with rape and murder of Nusrat Sheikh (9), the Vikhorli metropolitan magistrate’s court issued notices to the Superintendent of Thane prison and the Nehru Nagar police

Following an application by the lawyer of the 19-year-old arrested in connection with rape and murder of Nusrat Sheikh (9), the Vikhorli metropolitan magistrate’s court issued notices to the Superintendent of Thane prison and the Nehru Nagar police

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The accused has alleged illegal detention and custodial torture at the hands of police.

In the application, his lawyer Amin Solkar has alleged that the 19-year-old was detained on June 28 while he was shown as arrested in the case only on July 1. Solkar also alleged that after the arrest he was not allowed to sleep for consecutive days. “He was beaten with a belt and given electric shocks,” said Solkar.

Solkar added that the 19-year-old was injected with some drug and then his statement was recorded in front of a camera.

“The police also took his signature on a blank paper,” he said adding that the police threatened to implicate him in some other case if he disclosed that he was tortured before the magistrate.

On July 24, two policemen from Nehru Nagar police station went to Thane jail with two others and the 19-year-old was made to confess before them, Solkar alleged.

“When he said that he didn’t know anything, one person told him that he had seen him taking a girl in an auto rickshaw,” said Solkar. The Nehru Nagar police and the jail authorities have been asked to file their replies by July 31.