Puri: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sunday alleged that efforts are on to destroy the evidences with regard to the death of a 32-year-old man at the custody of Baselisahi police here November 18.
Addressing a presser here Sunday, BJP leader and Puri MLA Jayanta Sarangi claimed that police are trying to cover up the custodial death case.
“The then Puri district Superintendent of Police (SP) had narrated a false story and claimed that the victim died due to a scuffle with police. Then IIC of Baselisahi police was directly involved in the custodial death. But, it was shown that the IIC had gone on leave during the incident,” alleged Sarangi.
The Puri MLA also alleged that police were trying to influence the parents of victim K Ramesh by keeping them in an undisclosed location.
“It is clear from the postmortem report that K Ramesh was killed in the custody. The state government should book the then Puri SP and Baselisahi police IIC under Section 302 of the IPC and arrest them immediately. The case should be referred to the CBI for an impartial probe,” Sarangi said.
The Puri legislator also claimed that members and leaders of a particular political party had taken out rallies to support the then IIC of Baselisahi police. “These leaders should clarify whether they support custodial death,” Sarangi added.
It has been alleged that K Ramesh died in the custody of Baselisahi police, a few hours after his arrest. The incident had caused widespread protest in the city here.
Subsequently, the state government had shifted the then Puri SP Akhileshvar Singh to Odisha police headquarters in Cuttack and suspended a few personnel of Baselisahi police station. A few days ago, the then IIC of Baselisahi police station, Jibanananda Jena, was also transferred to the district police headquarters.
The custodial death allegation is being probed in strict adherence to guidelines of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
In the meantime, the postmortem report claimed that Ramesh’s body bore as many as 16 injury marks.
“Ramesh had died due to severe injuries on his head. A clot of around 250ml of blood was found in the brain of the victim,” said the postmortem report.
