A man picked up from his home in Baseli Sahi in Puri on Wednesday night died in police custody on Thursday, triggering tension in the area. K Ramesh had sustained injuries during a scuffle with police when the latter had gone to nab him. Later, he was admitted to the District Headquarters Hospital, where doctors declared him dead, Puri SP Akhileswar Singh said. “Police received a tipoff yesterday that Ramesh of the Baseli Sahi area has some weapons in his possession and was planning to commit a crime. When a team of police chased to catch him, Ramesh attacked them. There was a scuffle between police and Ramesh during which Ramesh sustained injuries.
Some of our officers also got minor injuries. He was taken to the police station and later shifted to hospital after he complained of body pain. He was declared dead by the doctors,” Singh said. “We are investigating his death as per NHRC’s guidelines with respect to custodial death. A DSP rank officer will investigate the case under the direct supervision of Additional SP. Further action will be taken as per law once the investigation is over,” he said.However, family members of the deceased refuted the police statement alleging that the youth died in the custody due to police excesses.
Later, a BJP team led by Leader of Opposition Pradipta Naik visited the house of the deceased’s family. The team demanded an inquiry by a sitting judge into the incident and compensation for the youth’s family. The Puri Lawyers’ Association demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident.
In another such incident on the day, the death of a 26-year-old youth allegedly in police custody triggered massive outrage after an irate mob tried to storm into the Birmitrapur police station in Sundargarh district seeking justice. Locals gheraoed the police station demanding action against the erring policemen.The deceased Tariq Salim had been brought to the police station for questioning in connection with a kidnapping case.
However, Sundargarh SP Sagarika Nath refuted the allegation of custodial death. “The youth died in hospital. We had rushed him to the Kuarmunda hospital after he complained of uneasiness.
On advice of doctors, we shifted him to the RGH, where he was declared brought dead,” said Nath. She said that as allegations of custodial death have come to the fore, the NHRC guidelines would be duly followed. The inquest will be video-graphed and the postmortem would be conducted by a team of doctors, she said.“A DSP-rank officer (HRPC) would conduct a probe’ and we will recommend for a judicial inquiry. Strict action would be taken against those found guilty, the SP added.
Reacting to both the alleged custodial deaths, DGP Abhay assured that action would be taken as per the guidelines of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) once the postmortem reports come in.