Custodial death of 22-year-old in UP raises political storm

Opposition Samajwadi Party attacked the Yogi government for another custodial death

ITDC INDIA EPRESS/ ITDC NEWS The death of a 22-year-old man, who was called in for questioning in a kidnapping case at Uttar Pradesh's Kasganj police station, has raised a political storm, with opposition Congress and the Samajwadi Party questioning the law and order situation in the state. Deceased Altaf's family members alleged that he was killed by police personnel. The police, however, claimed that Altaf had strangulated himself using a string of his jacket's hood in the washroom of the police lock-up. Five policemen have been suspended for negligence in the wake of the incident.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted: "Is there anything called human rights left in Uttar Pradesh?"

The opposition Samajwadi Party attacked the Yogi Adityanath government for "yet another custodial death", saying criminals and police are executing an "encounter" of law and order in the state under the BJP rule. SP president Akhilesh Yadav termed the death as suspicious and demanded a judicial probe into the matter.

Narrating the sequence of events, Kasganj's Superintendent of Police Rohan Pramod Botre said on Wednesday, "One Altaf [of Nagla Syed locality] was called for questioning in Kasganj police station in a case related to IPC section 363 (kidnapping) and 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing a woman to compel her marriage) on Tuesday morning. During interrogation, he requested the policemen to let him go to the washroom and was allowed to use the washroom inside the lockup," the SP said. "He was wearing a black jacket. He tried to strangulate himself with a string of the [jacket's] hood that he tied to the tap of the toilet. When he did not return for some time, the policemen went inside and found him unconscious. He was rushed to the community health centre, Ashok Nagar in Kasganj, where he died," the SP said.