More than seven years after the death of a man in police custody, the Orissa High Court has directed the state government to pay Rs 10 lakh to parents of the victim of custodial torture.
The Jeypore Police in Koraput district had intercepted motorcycle-borne Akash Mahuria on 30 January, 2017 as the man was wanted in several criminal cases and non-bailable warrants. Mahuria was allegedly tortured mercilessly in police custody. He had sustained multiple injuries due to third-degree treatment inflicted on him by cops.
Later, the man succumbed to injuries while undergoing treatment in a government-run hospital. Multiple external and internal injuries had led to profuse bleeding and had resulted in his death.
Pradip Kumar Mahuria and Prabina Mahuria, parents of the deceased, had moved the Odisha Human Rights Commission (OHRC). The rights panel had ordered an inquiry by the State crime branch of police into the alleged custodial death case. However, the CB probe moved at a snail’s pace prompting the deceased’s parents to knock at the doors of Orissa High Court seeking justice.
A Division Bench of Justice Biraja Prasanna Satapathy, expressing displeasure over slow progress of Crime Branch probe and rejecting the police version that the victim died due to falling down from the motorcycle, directed the Government to pay Rs 10 lakh compensation to the petitioners (deceased’s parents).
“After going through the materials on record, more particularly the nature and number on injuries on the deceased’s body, the Court is of the prima facie opinion that son of the petitioners died due to severe assault inflicted on him by the local police of Jeypore police station on 30 January 2017”, Justice Satapathy stated in the order.
The Court is not inclined to accept the stand taken by the opposite parties that the man succumbed to injury because of falling down from the motorcycle. It can be safely concluded that the deceased was subjected to police atrocity and due to assault inflicted on him, the deceased succumbed to injury, the order added.