UP suspends cops after uproar over custody death

Rashid was a Block Development Committee member of Rahimabad. He was also the face of development in the area. After winning the election in 1993, which he contested after much persuasion, he got pucca roads and pucca drains constructed in the village. His own house is just a thatched hut. ‘‘Before taking him to the police station, they beat him with a ‘‘patta’’. I told police that my son has not contacted us after his departure from the village. This was the second time that the police took my husband into custody within a month,’’ said his wife Shamirul Nisa.

The police, say villagers, even threatened to lock up anyone who came with food for him. After that, no villager was willing to risk taking food for him. On December 2, Nisa came to know that Rashid was not in the police station.

‘‘I had sent lunch for my husband by a villager, but he came back and told me that my husband was not in the lock-up. The village chowkidar, Radheshyam, too, confirmed that my husband was not there. When I went to the police, they demanded Rs 8,000 for his release, which I was unable to pay up,’’ she said. The next day, Rashid’s body was found hanging from a tree in a graveyard under the Malihabad police station area. The police lodged a case on recovery of an ‘‘unclaimed’’ body. When Rashid’s family got the information, they rushed to the autopsy section of the King George Medical University, and discovered it was Rashid’s body. For the large number of villagers who attended Rashid’s burial on Monday afternoon, the incident has left a bitter taste in the mouth.

Says Asfaque Khan: ‘‘Rashid was dead honest. We are at a loss to understand why the police killed him.’’

Says Circle Officer of Malihabad, Prashant Kumar: ‘‘We have appointed the Station House Officer of Kaisarbagh police station, B K Singh, as the investigating officer of the case. We will find out the truth and soon arrest the accused persons’’.