[Bulandshahr custodial death] Not convinced by State version of suicide: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court on Friday observed that it is not convinced by the State's account in the Bulandshahr custodial death case that the victim died by suicide [Suresh Devi and anr vs State of UP and ors]..A Bench of Justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Justice Rajnish Kumar noted that a judicial inquiry clearly found that the son of the petitioners died in the police custody and police personnel are responsible for it. "In matters of this kind we expect the higher officers to be sensitive to the deprivation of liberty and to immediately proceed to take appropriate action, as is warranted in law. We are not convinced with the version of the State that it is a case of suicide by the victim, as the judicial inquiry has come to a different conclusion," the Court said.The Bench noted that the said report clearly revealed that the victim had died in the police custody at the hands of State personnel. Towards this, it observed,"An appropriate report ought to have been lodged under Section 154 and investigation ought to have progressed. Claim for payment of compensation also ought to have been considered."The Court, therefore, directed the Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) to Uttar Pradesh's Home Department to file a personal affidavit in the matter. The Court asked the ACS to disclose the steps taken, including against the officers responsible, pursuant to the report of a judicial inquiry in the matter..The counsel for the State informed that the report had been received by the ACS on January 18 this year, no further instruction in that regard had been received. To this the Bench said that custodial deaths are serious matters, specially when the allegations are found true in a judicial enquiry and when it is the police who are found responsible. .The mother of the custodial death victim in the instant case had moved the High Court seeking protection. It was submitted that their son was subject to torture before his death, which happened as a consequence of of his inter-caste marriage. It was contended that the authorities did not deal with the matter fairly, as the body was cremated against norms rather than conducting a post-mortem, which the High Court in the instant case also took note of. The High Court had earlier observed that in such matters involving custodial deaths, a judicial inquiry under Section 176(1)A of the Criminal Procedure Code cannot be permitted to be dragged on for long, and require great sensitivity and concern.The Additional Chief Secretary after the latest hearing was thus directed to file the said report by April 19, the next date of hearing. The Registry was directed to hand over a copy of the enquiry report by the Additional Judicial Magistrate of Bulandshahr into the death, within three days. Advocates Jamil Ahamad Azmi, Anand Swaroop Gautam, Ashutosh Kumar Tiwari and Dharmendra Singh appeared for the petitioners. .[Read order]