Rajasthan: Murder case filed against four cops after Dalit man dies in police custody

04:03 PM Nov 11, 2020 | Urvashi Dev

A case of murder has been lodged against four police officials in the Bundi district of Rajasthan after the death of a 55-year-old Dalit man in police custody.

The Bundi SP, Shivraj Singh Meena, sent all 45 police personnel of the Sadar police station including SHO Shaukat Khan to the Police Lines on Tuesday. Bundi is about 215 km south of the Rajasthan capital, Jaipur.

The deceased, Harji Kanjar, had died in police custody on Monday after which member of the Kanjar community gathered outside the police station and demanded action against the guilty officials.

The SP had suspended the four accused policemen on Monday night. However, the angry Kanjar community members were not satisfied and demanded that a case of murder be lodged against the policemen. They also blocked the Bundi-Bijolia road for several hours.

After a case of murder was filed against the policemen, the crowd relented and freed the road. They then took the body from the mortuary to conduct the last rites on Tuesday. The case was lodged against head constable Satyanarayan Meena, and constables Hanuman Prasad, Prahlad Meena and Madanlal.

Kanjar’s family members said the policemen had reached their home in Ramnagar village on Monday afternoon and forcibly taken Kanjar to the police station. Some family members who followed the police claim that Kanjar became unconscious while at the police station and they took him to hospital where he was declared brought dead.

The police say they were taking Kanjar to the police station on a bike when he felt uneasy en route, and police along with his family members took him to hospital where he died.

Bundi Additional Superintendent of Police Kishori Lal said a case has been lodged under sections 302 and 34 of the IPC and the SC/ST Act against the accused policemen and the CID-CB was investigating the case.

Bundi MLA Ashok Dogra of the BJP who had gone to the hospital to meet the family members said they had shown him a video where the policemen were forcibly taking Kanjar to the police station.

He said he had demanded that the family of the deceased be given compensation and a job to the next of kin. “If the police do not carry out investigation into the matter soon and provide justice to the family, then the situation can become tense again.”