Aggrieved family members of the victim who died while in Amherst Street police station, allegedly due to police torture have moved the Calcutta High Court today. They are demanding his post-mortem in a central government hospital like All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) in any city across the country and release of CCTV footage of the incident inside the police station to probe the mystery behind the unnatural case.
A middle-aged man Ashoke Kumar Singh, a native of Bihar residing at Patuatola Lane, died after being called at the Amherst Street police station on charge of theft of a mobile phone. Singh’s family members alleged that he succumbed to police torture at the thana. But police denied the charge and said he had a sudden bout of seizure and collapsed.
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The incident created tension in College Street area after angry relatives and local residents blocked road on Wednesday night to protest against his unnatural death. They approached the Division Bench of Calcutta High Court’s chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya. They also demanded that the entire process of the post-mortem should be videographed. The Division Bench has admitted the petition and the matter is expected to be heard either on the second half on Thursday or on Friday. The petitioners apprehend that in case the postmortem is done at any staterun hospital there is a high possibility of the report getting fabricated to destroy evidence on this count.
The victim’s family members have alleged that he was summoned to the police station after being accused of purchasing a stolen mobile phone. He went to the police station on Wednesday afternoon and after some time, his family members were informed by the police that he had expired at the police station. Bijay, a nephew of the deceased, told the media that after being informed by the police, his wife Rajani rushed to the police station. “There she saw my uncle’s body lying in the police station premises.
She even spotted injury marks on his body. It was evident that the cops had beaten him up during interrogation, which led to his death,” said the nephew. According to police, postmortem report revealed that there was no evidence of injury marks on the deceased’s body. It was a case of natural death because he had history of several ailments. He had suffered cerebral attack on Wednesday. The post-mortem was conducted in the Medical College Hospital morgue.
