Six police personnel have been placed under suspension in Bihar’s West Champaran district in connection with the custodial death of a 25-year-old man two days ago, police said.
According to a statement issued by the district police, Dilshad Ansari had been arrested on Sunday in connection with a narcotics smuggling case, and he succumbed to a serious head injury at a hospital hours later.
The police party accompanying Ansari had claimed that he got wounded while trying to escape from custody by jumping off a speeding vehicle, though bereaved family members alleged that he had been “murdered.”
Accordingly, Superintendent of Police Kumar Gautam ordered suspension of six officials, including Ravi Shankar Kumar, the SHO of Sahodara police station and sub-inspector Arun Kumar, besides four constables.
Meanwhile, former Rajya Sabha MP Ali Anwar, who heads All India Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz, issued a statement deploring the incident and urging Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary to book the police personnel for alleged kidnapping and murder.
Anwar claimed that according to social activists based in West Champaran, “there were no injury marks on the arms and legs of Ansari, which could not have been possible had he jumped from the running police vehicle”.
He also urged the National Human Rights Commission to step in and direct authorities concerned that payment of ex gratia be made to dependants of Ansari, who “hailed from a very poor family and had a six-month-old daughter.”
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