CID starts probe into death of Pardhi youth in police custody, gets CCTV footage and lock-up records from cop station

Railway Police have denied the allegations and claimed that he died of pneumonia.

The deceased has been identified as Nagesh Ramdas Pawar, a resident of Jamkhed in Ahmednagar.

“Investigation has been launched into the custodial death of Nagesh Pawar as per the guidelines of the Supreme Court. Post-mortem of the deceased was completed Thursday at the Sassoon Hospital. CID has obtained the CCTV footage, station diary entries, lock-up records and other essential material at the Railway Police station,” said Shrikant Dhivare, superintendent of police (SP), CID.

Nagesh was arrested by the Railway Police from Hadapsar area of Pune city on August 16. Sadanand Wayse Patil, SP of Railway Police’s Pune unit, said Nagesh was wanted in connection to eight offences of robbery and dacoity committed over the last five years.

Family of Nagesh Pawar at Sassoon Hospital. (Express photo by Chandan Haygunde)

“After his arrest, while he was in police custody, he started suffering from breathing problems. He was admitted to the Sassoon General Hospital on August 20, where he was diagnosed with pneumonia. After his death during treatment, an autopsy was performed as per procedure in the presence of a magistrate….. The primary report of the autopsy rules out any external injury. Moreover, he was presented before the court twice for police custody and on both occasions, when the judge asked him as per procedure whether he was being beaten in police custody, Nagesh had replied in the negative,” said Wayse Patil.

In their letter to the district collector, Nagesh’s family said he had come to his sister Rani’s house in Hadapsar, for Raksha Bandhan. They said he sold Tricolours in the city on August 15 but the next day, Railway Police went to his sister’s house and took him into custody. In the letter, his family members claimed that police told Pawar’s sister, “’Tell your brother to reveal details of the looted gold or else we will have to take stern steps…”.

The family has alleged that when police produced Nagesh in court after his medical test, to seek his custody, he was fine. The court had  remanded him to police custody till August 24.

“On August 23, I got to know from police that they had admitted him to Sassoon Hospital as he was suffering from some medical problems. But he died at the hospital. My brother was not a criminal,” said Rani, Nagesh’s sister. The family also alleged that police did not inform them when Pawar was admitted to hospital on August 20.

Asked about these allegations, CID SP Shrikant Dhivare said, “Probe is on. We will be investigating the medical reports and hospital details of the deceased. Documents regarding the inquest panchnama and post-mortem of the deceased are crucial….. Statements of the co-accused will be recorded.”

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Nagesh’s cousin Sachin Pawar said, “The British used to brand the Pardhi community as a criminal tribe. Since then, and even in independent India, there have been several cases when police arrested members of the Pardhi community in false cases and tortured them severely in police custody. Innocent persons from the community are framed by naming them falsely in the statements of some accused in criminal offences. We suspect Nagesh was also framed similarly over some old cases. He had never been arrested in the past. He was working hard to feed his wife and children. We have decided not to accept his body from the hospital till we are sure about justice. Police have also arrested his father-in-law over the same cases.”

Hospital authorities refused to comment on the issue. As per legal procedure, a case of accidental death was initially registered at the Bundgarden police station. The case was transferred to the Railway Police station and later taken over by the CID.