Taking suo-motu cognizance of the alleged custodial death of a 25-year-old in Kapurthala, the Punjab State Human Rights Commission on Tuesday called for report from Kapurthala Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) with the directions to submit the same along with the Inquest or Judicial Magisterial inquiry report, before the next date of hearing — that is November 29, 2022.
Commission’s member Justice Nirmaljit Kaur has taken the suo-motu cognizance of the report indicating that 25-year-old Roshan Lal, who was arrested in a theft case, died in the police custody at City Police Station, Kapurthala.
Going into the background of the matter, Roshan was reportedly apprehended by the police on Sunday on the complaint of a shopkeeper.
Roshan’s wife Seema levelled allegations of custodial death of her husband and demanded registration of a criminal case against the guilty cops. As per reports, she said that she got a call from the police station on Sunday afternoon to send a meal for her husband, but later in the evening, she received another call that he had passed away and that we can take his body from the Civil Hospital mortuary.
SSP Navneet Singh Bains said that he had deputed SP (Investigation) Harvinder Singh to investigate the matter. “Our preliminary investigation does not point to anything fishy. The cause of death would be known only after the postmortem,” he said.
Meanwhile, Jalandhar Range DIG S Bhupati, too, has taken note of the matter and asked SSP to send him a report on it.