Hyderabad: Days after five policemen were placed under suspension after the reported custodial death of the 22-year-old Muslim boy Altaf on Tuesday night in Uttar Pradesh’s Kasganj, UP Police has now registered an FIR against unidentified policemen under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code.
The family of the victim, however, continues to suffer. The mother of the deceased reportedly said “the media is here, the politicians are here, all of the promises are here, but there is no justice for my son,” says Fatima.
The Wire reported that in Ahirauli, a small village of Kasganj district, scores of politicians and media persons throng Altaf’s house as his father, sick from trauma, is lying on the bed coughing.
“I will not let my voice break, this is the only way,” he said and added that he had handed his son over to the police with full faith. “I did not know that the very next day we would have to find him dead. They have murdered my son, our only hope is to keep fighting,” he remarked.
The man, Altaf, had been brought to the police station on Tuesday morning for questioning in a case filed last week in connection with the alleged kidnapping of a woman and forced marriage.
In a video statement released on Twitter on Wednesday, Kasganj superintendent of police Rohan Pramod Bothre claimed the man asked to use the toilet at the police station. When he did not return after a few minutes, the cops went inside the toilet.
“He was wearing a black jacket and it appears he hooked the string, attached to the hood of the jacket, to a tap in the washroom and tried to strangle himself. He was brought out unconscious and taken to the hospital. He died within a few minutes,” Bothre said.
The five policemen suspended in the case have been accused of ‘negligence’, according to a statement.
“My son was a bright boy; he was extremely reserved. We cannot believe that he would kidnap anyone. If he had kidnapped her, why would he be at his house? We were not allowed to meet him. When the police informed us of his death, they immediately wanted me to sign a letter saying I was in trauma. I felt pressured to sign whatever was asked of me. All we want is justice for our son.”