Mystery continues to shroud the death of two men in custody here even as resentment grows over the failure of the police to arrest the cops accused of murder by the victims’ families.Police claim that someone gave Mahipal and Padam food laced with poison, but their families allege that policemen are responsible for the deaths. Police have also failed to explain why the two, who were wanted gangsters, were being kept in illegal detention.Mahipal’s father Amarnath Tyagi has lodged an FIR alleging murder by six people, including the acting SHO, Budhana police station, Adesh Sharma, his four colleagues and an alleged police informer, Sardara Singh. Padam’s brother Kamal has filed another complaint, naming all the above policemen except Sharma.DIG Saharanpur D.C. Pandey has recommended that the case be entrusted to the CB-CID for investigation. Budhana observed a bandh yesterday and there were reports of stone-pelting, after which the police sought a day to arrest the accused cops.Police are in a spot as they are finding it hard to explain as to how food laced with poison could found its way to accused in custody. They are at a loss of words to explain why exactly Mahipal and Padam were in custody. Earlier, they said they were doing satta business, but now they claim the duo was involved in looting and narcotics.The families of both the deceased accuse police of framing false charges against them. Mahipal’s brother Mahendra alleges that the SHO had demanded Rs 1 lakh bribe through police informer Sardara Singh. ‘‘He said that if we did not pay up, Mahipal would be framed in more cases or killed in an encounter,’’ Mahendra said. He claimed that the amount was paid to Singh as per the ‘‘settlement’’.Soon after, the families say, they were told Mahipal and Padam had died in custody. Mahendra says the two had complained of pain, and police station staff gave them golis. They consuming those and fell ill and died, he says. The postmortem report has also failed to help provide any clues.
