LUDHIANA: Family of custodial death victim and recovery agent Deepak Shukla is likely to get the action taken report on the FIR lodged against three cops on charges of contempt of court.
The National Human Rights Commission has directed the Punjab Police to provide it.
The commission has written to the additional director general of police (human rights), SK Asthana, who has directed Ludhiana commissioner of police Rakesh Agarwal to provide the report to the complainant and inform his office about the compliance of the order.
In August 2020, then SHO of Division 5 police station sub-inspector Richa Rani, then in charge of Kochhar Market police post Jaskaran Singh and then ASI Charanjit Singh were booked for contempt of court as they had taken Deepak back to police post and kept him in the lockup overnight despite the court orders of sending him in judicial custody.
This FIR was lodged after six months of the incident.
For nine months, Deepak’s family has been struggling to get the action taken report.
They had approached the Punjab Human Rights Commission and also a local court for the report, but to no avail.
On Wednesday, there was a court hearing in the case.
The court had summoned and directed assistant commissioner of police, Civil Lines, Jatinder Kumar, who is investigating officer of the case, to submit the action taken report on June 11.
However, on Friday, the additional chief judicial magistrate was on leave, so now the next hearing would be on July 12.
Deepak, 26, had died on the night of February 26, 2020, and the family was informed the next day.
The family alleged that the cops brutally thrashed him in the lockup and the next day he was sent to Ludhiana Central Jail, where he died a night later.
“After a long struggle, we had managed to get an FIR lodged against the cops.
They were suspended, but days later the top cop had reinstated the SHO.
In September last, we had moved an application in a local court to get the action taken report on this FIR.
However, the cops did not appear before the court.
The court had summoned ACP Jatinder on March 2, but summons were not issued to him,” said Rakesh Shukla, paternal uncle of the deceased.
He added, “We had to approach the National Human Rights Commission to get the report.
Now, we hope to get it.
The circumstances that led to Deepak’s death are still not clear.
We have already approached the Punjab and Haryana high court to lodge a murder case against the cops.
The judicial inquiry into the death had suggested that there was a need to investigate the role of police officials for mercilessly beating Deepak and demanding a bribe.
But no action was taken on the report.” ACP, Civil Lines, Jatinder said, “The investigation is on, therefore, the action taken report cannot be shared.
Besides, I had gone to the court for hearing on Friday, but the judge was on leave.” The case The Division 5 police had arrested Deepak on February 22, 2020, for vehicle theft and he was produced before the court, which sent him in two days’ police remand.
On February 24, when Deepak was again produced before the court, it ordered his judicial custody.
But the police took him back to the police post, where he was allegedly tortured and was sent to jail on February 25.
The family then received a call that Deepak was unwell and had died.
The kin alleged that the cops had demanded Rs 1.25 lakh from them for releasing Deepak and they had also paid them Rs 25,000.