65-year-old man dies in Junagadh police custody

Ahmedabad: A 65-year-old man from Junagadh died in police custody after he and 11 others were allegedly picked up by cops of C Division police of the district, on suspicion of theft. Before his death under suspicious circumstance, police allegedly made him confess to a a mobile phone theft, states the plea made by 11 others before Junagadh range IG Subhash Trivedi on Thursday.

According to the plea filed by 11 members of a nomadic tribe, Bajanias, Hira Bajania died after policemen beat him mercilessly for two days, on August 15 and 16.

The plea states that two cops reached their locality on the night of August 15 and clicked pictures of two men, saying that they took their photographs to make sure no one would harass them in the future. After a while, three police vehicles full of cops arrived and picked up 12 members of the community, the plea states.

The cops began beating them after midnight on August 15 and kept belting them till dawn on Independence Day. After a break, they again thrashed them after tying them up outside the C division police station, all while telling them to confess to a theft, it added.

At around 3.30pm on August 16, the cops dropped one of the 12 men, Hira Bajania, who was unconscious, near the others. When they saw Hira, he was not breathing. When they told the cops that he was dead, the cops said he was only pretending. The cops then drew near, checked Hira, and then took him somewhere. They later learned that Hira was dead, the plea states.

On Thursday, Mittal Patel, an activist, met the Range IG and Junagadh SP Saurabh Singh, along with the victims, and submitted the plea. Patel said Hira’s postmortem was conducted at Jamnagar Civil Hospital and his family were forced to cremate his body, which is not the tradition among the nomads.

The Range IG and SP, for now, have promised to begin an inquiry against the cops concerned.