Custodial death: Murder case lodged against cops

According to Barabanki SP Kripa Shanker Singh,police had called Sushil Verma (28) to the police station on Friday morning to identify some suspects related to a case of robbery. He suddenly collapsed in the station and was rushed to the hospital where he died in the noon. There was no injuries on the victim’s body. The postmortem report is awaited.

The SP has removed CO Dharmendra Sachan from the post and suspended SO Anand Singh,lodging a murder case under Section 302 of the IPC against them.

Kripa Shanker,however,said the death was not caused by police manhandling and the action against the policemen was initiated following allegations of the victim’s employer Shiv Baran Singh and the family members.

Verma,an employee of a petrol pump owned by ex-MLA Shiv Baran Singh in Jehangirabad,was robbed of Rs 1.29 lakh by three miscreants while he was on way to hand over the cash to his employer on June 24.

Petrol pump owner Shiv Baran Singh had lodged the FIR in the loot case and he is also the complainant in the custodial death case.

The FIR stated that the police had summoned Verma to the police station on Thursday night. The CO and the SO tortured him,suspecting his role behind the robbery. The policemen said he had fabricated the robbery and lodged a false FIR. They forced him to the reveal names of the miscreants who executed the robbery. The detention and the police torture caused the death,the FIR alleged.