Custodial deaths case: 8 cops suspended, booked for murder in Bihar

Though the autopsy report is inconclusive, the action against the policemen came after a preliminary inquiry by Muzaffarpur zone IG Nayyar Husnain Khan.

At least eight policemen, including station house officer (SHO) of Sitamarhi’s Dumra police station, have been suspended and booked on murder charges after two suspects in a loot and murder case, whom they had picked up for questioning on Tuesday night, died in their custody on Wednesday.

Eight policemen, including SHO Chandra Bhushan Singh, have been booked for murder. (Representative)

Though the autopsy report is inconclusive, the action against the policemen came after a preliminary inquiry by Muzaffarpur zone IG Nayyar Husnain Khan.

ADG (headquarters) Kundan Krishnan said, “Eight policemen, including SHO Chandra Bhushan Singh, have been booked for murder. We assure the victims’ families that if found guilty, the policemen would not spared. They might be terminated from their services if a charge sheet is filed against them in the case.”

Police said Mohammed Gufran (30) and Mohammad Taslim Alam (32) were picked up from Ramdih village under Chakia police station area of East Champaran district around midnight in a case of robbery and murder and were kept at the Dumra police station.

Family members have alleged that police tortured them till they began losing their breath. As their condition deteriorated, the police rushed both of them to the Sitamarhi Sadar Hospital, where doctors declared them dead.

Khan said he had directed the range DIG, Ravindra Kumar, to ensure immediate arrest of the accused named in the FIR, which was filed as per guidelines of the National Human Rights Commission in cases of custodial death.

He said efforts were under way to ascertain the identity of the other policemen who were present at the time of the incident. Khan has asked the DIG to submit a detailed report soon.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people, including comprising family members, blocked the national highway in Chakia for nearly two hours, leading to long traffic jams.

Motihari SP Upendra Kumar Singh visited the spot and persuaded them to remove blockades from the road.

“The policemen came in the middle of the night on Tuesday and took away Taslim. They gave us no reason while arresting him,” said Kasidam Khatoon, Taslim’s mother.

Ali Anwar, uncle of Mohammad Gufran, the other deceased, said that unlike Taslim, his nephew had no criminal antecedents and had been working in Saudi Arab till recently. “He had come on vacation. When police came knocking at our doors looking for him, we were shocked. We kept asking police about his crime, but they did not say anything,” he said.

Another uncle, Mohammad Sanowar Ali, said pictures of the two boys showed bruises and blue marks on parts of their bodies.

According to the police, Taslim is an accused in two cases of murder, one of Chunnu Thakur, panchayat head of Mehasi who was killed in 2010, and the other of Ramesh Singh, panchayat head in Jharkhand’s Sahebganj district who was killed in 2017.

Taslim, the police said, had served a five-year jail term in one of the murder cases and had recently come out on bail.

Gufran, however, had no criminal cases, they said.