Following a Delhi court’s order, charges of murder and kidnapping will be framed against six policemen on Tuesday for the alleged custodial death of a man in New Delhi in 2014. The charges will be formally framed on Wednesday.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Sanjay Garg last week found prima facie evidence against then head constable Bhoop Singh and constables Uttam Kumar, Sudhir Singh, Rajesh Kumar, Rajesh Kumar Yadav and Arvind to be tried for kidnapping, murder, destruction of evidence and common intention under the Indian Penal Code.
The six were posted in west Delhi’s Bindapur police station when the alleged custodial death occurred.
“A perusal of the postmortem report of the deceased shows that the cause of death has been opined to be asphyxia as a result of ante mortem compression of the neck and chest, sufficient to cause death in ordinary course of nature,” said the court.
According to the court, the said medical opinion is sufficient for framing murder charge against these policemen, which states that the death was caused due to asphyxia before death due to compression of neck.
According to the case of the prosecution, six policemen of West Delhi’s Bindapur police station on May 26, 2014, picked up deceased Manoj from JJ Colony, Pankha Road of East Uttam Nagar and took him to an old building in Bindapur.
The man died during custodial interrogation. The accused policemen later took the body to a local hospital and left it unattended.
However, accused in their defense contended that from the material on record, it cannot be said that they had intention to kill the deceased Manoj and thus they cannot be charged for murder. The court, however, rejected their claim stating that their contention is devoid of any merit.
After Manoj’s death, the accused persons, in a bid to conceal his identity, destroyed his belongings and left his body unattended at DDU hospital, the court noted.