After Supreme Court order over ‘torture’, Gujarat police file custodial death case

At around 12:15 am, the FIR was registered under Sections 103(1) (murder), 108 (abetment of suicide), hurt and grievous hurt [115(2), 117(2), 123, 118(1)] 127(2) (wrongful confinement), joint liability and conspiracy [3(5) and 61(2)] of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

The FIR was based on a complaint filed by Shaikh’s son, Tofik Shaikh. Shaikh claimed his father had been tortured while in police custody and forced to swallow an overdose of his prescription medication. He died in hospital days later.

What did the son allege?

Tofik Shaikh claimed his father had been taken into custody first on May 16 over a case registered under the Gujarat Animal Preservation Act at the Vejalpur Police Station.

In his complaint he argued the arresting officers – i.e., from the Sarkhej Police Station – ‘had no jurisdiction’ and gave the family no arrest memo, which made the detention illegal.

He also said his father complained of chest pains and breathlessness while in custody.

Shaikh was then admitted to a local hospital – the Sola Civil Hospital.

The son further said that immediately after his father’s discharge from hospital – on May 18 – he was arrested again, this time by police from Vejalpur and in connection with the same case.

The family said they handed over his medications and prescriptions to the police.

Shaikh, his son said, was then chucked into the police station’s surveillance room and guarded by two constables – both of whom were named in the complaint. The family also alleged that Shaikh’s wife, Rukshanabanu, was physically removed when she tried to see her husband.

The alleged murder

According to the complaint, on the intervening night of May 18 and 19, in his dying declaration Shaikh said he was forced to swallow around 90 tablets of Metformin (to lower blood sugar levels in Type-2 diabetes) and 10 of Glimepiride (to stimulate the pancreas to release insulin).

Hospital records documented in the FIR noted the “ingestion of anti-diabetic medications, around 12 midnight, of 90 tablets as per history given by patient…”

This was allegedly while in the custody of Vejalpur police and in their surveillance room.

The FIR also stated that Shaikh was then carried out by two constables and taken to hospital. It also stated that he told his wife outside the station – ‘police beat me and forced tablets into me’.

This, Shaikh’s family said, was his “dying declaration”.

The complaint referred to two video recordings made by the son when his father was in hospital; the clips, shot at 1.06 AM and 1.08 AM on May 19, supposedly show a ‘drowsy but conscious and able to speak’ Ghyasuddin Shaikh naming two policemen who had assaulted him with sticks.

A second medical history – recorded at the Asarwa Civil Hospital on May 25, a day before Shaikh died and attributed to him – also said that he had ingested about 100 of his pills.

Shaikh was later shifted to a third hospital where he was declared dead. The FIR recorded the immediate cause of death as multi-organ failure and cardiorespiratory arrest.

In his complaint, the son named an Assistant Commissioner of Police, the Vejalpur Police Inspector-in-charge, the Investigating Officer in the Animal Preservation Act case, and the two constables named by Shaikh in the video.

He also named a Head Constable and another constable – who carried Shaikh to the police vehicle after he collapsed – as well as unidentified staff from the Vejalpur and Sarkhej police stations.

Critically, the complaint also claimed the alleged forced overdose of medications was, in fact, voluntary on the part of Ghyasuddin Shaikh. His son insisted the medicines in question were with the cops and that his father had ‘no voluntary access to overdose at will’.

Two earlier events – a pending departmental inquiry into an assault complaint filed by another of Shaikh’s sons against Vejalpur police personnel in 2024 and a May 2026 video that showed police beating the same son and two others near the family home – were also flagged.

The FIR claimed the alleged cow slaughter case was filed as retaliation by the police.

What was the alleged cow slaughter case?

Vejalpur police had booked nine people for alleged illegal cow slaughter, including Shaikh, and claimed to have recovered 520 kg of cow meat and a live calf in a raid on May 5.

Shaikh – allegedly the leader – was arrested May 16.