Taking a tough stand on the Bulandshahr police custodial death case, the Allahabad High Court has asked the Additional Chief Secretary to file a personal affidavit. A bench of Justice Ashwini Kumar Mishra and Justice Rajnish Kumar said that judicial inquiry has found that the death of the petitioner’s son took place in police custody and the policemen are responsible for this.
The two-judge bench said that the investigation report shows that the victim died at the hands of state personnel in custody. The court said that a suitable report under section 154 should have been filed and the investigation should have proceeded. Simultaneously, the claim for payment of compensation should also have been considered.
In this case, the Allahabad High Court directed the Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) of the Home Department of Uttar Pradesh to file a personal affidavit. The court has also asked the Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) to inform about the steps taken against the officials responsible, as per the report of the judicial inquiry in the matter.
The counsel appearing for the state government in this matter told the high court that the report was received by the ACS on January 18 this year and no further directions were received in this regard. To this, the court said that death in police custody is a serious matter, especially when the allegations made in the judicial inquiry are found to be true and when the police are found responsible for it.
The mother of the victim, who died in custody, had approached the High Court seeking protection. In this case, it was stated that the woman’s son was subjected to torture before his death because he had entered into a consanguineous marriage of his own free will. It was also argued that the authorities did not take an impartial stand in this matter as the body was cremated without conducting a post-mortem. Police is calling the custodial death a suicide.