Family members of a minor boy picked up by the Jammu & Kashmir Police in connection with the incidents of violence in Kishtwar on August 9, 2013 have accused the police officers of severely torturing him in police custody in a bid to fix him in the case.
The minor boy, as claimed by the family members, has received severe internal injuries during sustained torture in the police custody for the last six days. As condition of the boy worsened in police custody, he was allowed to go home on Tuesday afternoon and thereafter he was rushed to the district hospital by his family in Kishtwar.
Showing no signs of improvement, the doctors who were worried about his condition, referred him to the Government Medical College Hospital in Jammu on Wednesday. The family had not reached GMC, Jammu till late evening, official sources said.
The minor boy identified as Ajay Kumar s/o Sewa Ram, r/o Begana Kishtwar was in the police custody for the last six days, claimed Babita Devi, elder sister of the minor boy, before starting her journey from Kishtwar.
She alleged Ajay was mercilessly beaten up by the police for six days after he was picked from near the residence of his sister by four police personnel. “When we approached the senior officers to release him as his name did not figure on the list of miscreants prepared by the local police no one listened to our pleas,” Babita told reporters in Kishtwar.
She also accused the officers of the SIT team for illegal confinement of her brother and warned them if anything went wrong she would hold them directly responsible. Ajay is working as conductor in Kishtwar and his brother-in-law has been engaged as SPO.
SSP Kishtwar Sanjay Kotwal claimed that a minor boy was called for questioning in connection with the different case and was allowed to go home each day in the company of his brother-in-law.
The senior police officer claimed that when Ajay realised that he would be framed by the police he started complaining of abdomen pain and was shifted to the hospital.
Unhappy with the brutal use of force on a minor boy, a local youth in Kishtwar claimed that police was allegedly trying to fix Ajay in the case of Kishtwar violence and pressuring him to identify a few locals in front of the probe panel investigating the circumstances which led to the violence in Kishtwar.
Meanwhile, the SIT probe is currently on and in addition the one-man commission headed by Justice (Retd) RC Gandhi is also probing the circumstances and events which led to the violence after Eid prayers in Kishtwar.
A total number of three people were killed and several others were injured besides incidents of rioting and torching of business establishments in the main markets of Kishtwar. The much promised compensation is yet to be handed over the victims in Kishtwar pending completion of formalities.