Puri: Following protests by Puri locals, the police launched an investigation Friday into the alleged custodial death of K Ramesh (32) in police custody at Baseli Sahi Police Station, Wednesday.
Inspector General (IG) in-charge S Praveen visited Puri Thursday for inspection at the spot where the matter took place. He met Puri SP Akhileshwar Singh and other senior officials and reviewed the developments in connection with the allegations leveled against the officials of Baseli Sahi Police Station.
Praveen has directed the officials to investigate the case in accordance with the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) guidelines.
As decided in the review meeting, Puri police Friday launched a probe into the matter.
Sources said, relatives of deceased K Ramesh in Puri alleged that the 32-year-old died due to torture in police custody. However, Puri Superintendent of Police (SP) Akhileshwar Singh rejected the allegation and claimed that Ramesh died Wednesday following a scuffle with police.
Ramesh’s family members and locals had staged a protest at the district headquarters of police Thursday.
On the other hand, SP Singh claimed that Ramesh had earlier been booked in four cases at different police stations in Puri.
“Ramesh had snatched away Rs 5 lakh from a person under Puri Sadar police limits after resorting to firing. He was booked by Sea Beach police for extortion and by Kumbharpada police for some other crimes. He had been released from Angul jail recently,” Singh added.
After being released from jail, Ramesh purchased some weapons and was planning to commit more crimes. In the meantime Baseli Sahi Police were tipped off about the incident and tried to stop him from committing the crime.
But their intervention resulted in a face-off in which Ramesh sustained grievous injuries.
Even though the police took him to the DHH, Ramesh was declared dead by the doctors.
Relatives of Ramesh, however, said, “Ramesh died due to torture in police custody. Police have also detained his parents. Police did not hand over the body to us after postmortem. They hurriedly cremated the body at Swargadwar without informing anything to us,” they alleged.
The incident triggered protests from various quarters. Activists of Congress and BJP along with locals held a sit-in protest in front of the DHH. They also scuffled with the police when the latter did not hand over the victim’s body to his relatives. The activists later held a demonstration in front of the SP office.
However, the SP said the case would be thoroughly probed as per the guidelines laid by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to deal with the custodial death allegation.
“A case has been registered with Baselisahi police under Section 341, 323 and 307 of IPC. The Human Rights Protection Cell (HRPC) DSP will probe the incident while the Additional SP will supervise the investigation,” said the SP.
PNN
