Udaipur : Situation was tensed in Saira police station after a man who was picked up by the police for interrogation in an abduction case, died after his health deteriorated in police station on Wednesday morning. While family sources alleged it was a case of custodial torture & death , police said the deceased was taken to hospital first and referred to Udaipur and on the way he died. The men were detained and not officially arrested, sources said.
Lalaram Garasiya a resident of Sadri, Ranakpur in Pali district and his relative were brought by the Saira police for interrogation in a year-old case of kidnap of a girl. According to sources, the girl had run away with a boy who was Lalaram’s nephew in November 2019 and police had on earlier occasions too, interrogated Lalaram and his relatives to get the whereabouts of the girl. DySP (Girva) Prem Dhande told that Lalaram and another man were brought at the police station on Tuesday night and questioned.
“They were only interrogated in the normal course as they had been on previous occasions and there was nothing like torture. In the morning Lalaram’s health condition was found to be bad and he was taken to the local hospital where he was examined. The doctor referred him to Udaipur and while the cops were taking him , he died on the way. His body is kept at the Saira mortuary and an autopsy would be conducted by a medical board on Thursday” Dhande said.
Sources said, additional forces from nearby police stations were called anticipating protests from the Garasiya community however, the DySP said none other than few relatives of the deceased have shown up. “They have given a complaint and their grievances would be heard, a thorough investigation will be held” the officer said.
Meanwhile human right activists claimed it yet another instance of police brutality and demanded the entire police station staff to be suspended. Citing the Tejaram case where a cattle raiser from Pali was falsely accused in NDPS case by the Vallabh Nagar police and released later on upon an CID-CB investigation, activists claimed that CI Prabhulal Meena, ASI RamAvtar and others tortured the men to an extent that Lalaram died in police custody however cops cooked up a different story.