Two cops held over custodial death of 19-year-old youth in Maharashtra’s Akola

A relative of the Haramkar, who was also at the police station at the time of the incident, alleged that the youth was assaulted by the policemen who allegedly inserted a stick in his private part.

The two arrested policemen have been identified as police sub-inspector Rajesh Jaware and constable Chandraprakash Solanke. Two other police constables, who were allegedly involved in the custodial death, have also been booked under the charges of murder.

Following the arrests, the investigation of the case was transferred to the state Crime Investigation Department (CID) on Wednesday.

Confirming the developments, Deputy Superintendent of Police Anmol Mittal (Akot Division) said, “We registered a case and arrested them on the basis of the finding of our investigation. The case has now been transferred to the state CID who will further probe the matter.”

The officials said that Haramkar was booked in six cases of thefts. The four policemen had picked him up “supposedly on suspicion” on January 15 and taken him to the police station for detailed interrogation during which it is alleged that the 19-year-old man was assaulted with a belt.

The complainant Sukhdev, the deceased’s uncle, in his statement to police, said, “At around 8 pm on January 16, Jaware and three other policemen came to my house and conducted a search but they could not find anything. When I asked them what they were looking for, they started beating me up and took me to the police station.”

Sukhdev, 65, had also sustained severe head injury after being allegedly assaulted by police.

His statement further read, “The four policemen broke Haramkar’s ribs while they also inserted a stick in his private part. My nephew kept screaming for help but I could not do anything.”

Later, when Haramkar started losing his consciousness, the complainant claimed that he was taken to a private hospital where the doctors refused to admit him and referred to a government hospital.

The four policemen then took him to another private hospital, where the victim died during treatment on January 17.

“After the postmortem examination, we were not allowed to take Haramkar’s body to our village to conduct the final rites and were instead forced to perform the final rites at the riverside at Nazuknagar near Mohala Mill Mokshachan in Akola,” Sukhdev’s statement read.

As the family members of the deceased were scared of the four policemen, they did not lodge a complaint. But the incident came to light after an anonymous letter was sent to the police department in the last week of February, a police officer said.

During the course of the internal probe, the officials learnt that the four policemen were responsible for causing Haramkar’s death following which a detailed report was submitted to the Superintendent of Police (Akola), and Jaware and Solanke were suspended from the force on April 10.

The police officials then convinced the deceased’s uncle after which his statement was recorded and a case of murder was registered late on Tuesday. The two policemen were subsequently arrested.

“Till the investigation of the case was with us, the uncle could only identify Jaware and Solanke but he has not been able to identify the other two policemen who were involved in the crime due to which they have not been arrested yet,” a senior police officer said.