‘Assaulted’ by Basti SDM,man dies

Basti SP Modak Rajesh D Rao,however,said the man died of heart failure outside the SDM’s office and the allegation of assault was false. Range DIG Abhimanyu Tripathi said: “The exact cause of death will be known after the postmortem. But we have registered a case against the SDM under IPC Sections of 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) following on a complaint given by the victim’s son.”

The complaint alleged that Vaish assaulted Shailendra Pandey (55) inside his office following an argument and this led to Pandey’s death,he said.

Pandey’s son Narendra said his motorcycle was seized a week ago during a drive to check documents of vehicles. As the vehicle could only be released by the SDM’s office,he and his father had been visiting the office for four days,but nobody attended to their request. On Monday morning,Narendra said,they again went to the office and were allowed to speak to Vaish around 1 pm. His father requested the official for the release of the vehicle,but the SDM asked him to pay a hefty penalty.

According to Narendra,his father then pleaded with Vaish to reduce the penalty and even fell at his feet. But Vaish got angry,slapped Pandey and pushed him.

Pandey’s head hit the wall. He fell unconscious and died before he could be taken to a hospital,Narendra alleged.

Samajwadi Party spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary demanded a compensation of Rs 25 lakh for the kin of the deceased and the arrest of the SDM.