Distraught at being booked for rape, kidnapping an also under the POCSO Act in the aftermath of his eloping with a minor, a youth ended his life inside a police station lock-up in Hamirpur.
After the incident came to light, Superintendent of Police of Hamirpur suspended Sub-Inspector Devendra Kumar and constables Anup Kumar and Anuj Kumar for negligence in duty and ordered an inquiry into the incident.
As per reports, Sanjay of Mahoba district used to frequent a village in Maudaha police station area of Hamirpur as his sister lives there after her marriage. During his visits, he befriended a minor girl and later the love-struck couple eloped. A complaint in this regard was later filed by the girl’s family at Khanna Kotwali.
On July 23, the police recovered the girl and arrested Sanjay from Noida but no legal proceedings could be initiated as the courts were closed on July 24 and 25. Sanjay was booked under various sections — 363 (kidnapping), 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage) and 376 (rape) — of the Indian Penal Code and relevant charges under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act were also invoked against him.
While being lodged in the lock-up of Maudaha police station, Sanjay hanged himself to death tying his shirt to the lock-up grill in the wee hours of Wednesday. When the cops on duty spotted him, they immediately brought him down and rushed him to a community health centre where the attending doctors after preliminary treatment, referred him to a higher medical facility but he died on the way.
His body was later sent for autopsy.
The Hamirpur SP suspended three cops in this connection. He said an inquiry had been ordered, and further action would be taken accordingly.