Custodial death: Police may expunge some names from FIR

RUDRAPUR: A day after the investigating officer in the

custodial death

of

Ziyauddin Raza

claimed the deceased to be 19-year old and not a minor, the police are now set to remove two names from the

First Information Report

(FIR). Udham Singh Nagar senior superintendent of police Senthil Avoodai Krishna Raj S, talking to TOI, said that there is no such evidence that Hamid Ali, father of the girl allegedly abducted by deceased, and his son were present at the crime scene. The FIR registered in the case has their names too, along with seven policemen.

According to

legal experts

, this may not be so simple for the cops though. Vipul Sharma, a senior lawyer in the high court, said, "While policemen are well within their rights to strike down names from the FIR, if they find no evidence against them, it is subject to the scrutiny of the magistrate concerned.” Sharma added that the provision may not help cops in this case where a CB-CID probe has already been recommended and both Hamid Ali and his son are the prime accused in the case.

Mohammad Salim, uncle of the deceased, said that his family will react lawfully to any such act of the police. "We do not want any innocent to be punished, but Hamid Ali and his son are prime accused in custodial death of our boy, Ziyauddin. If police expunge their names from the FIR, we will take help of our lawyer to fight against this,” he said.

Mohammad Asif, Ziyauddin's brother-in-law, said police cannot be the deciding authority in the case. "Let them arrest the accused first and present them in the court. We have full faith in judiciary and any such effort of expunging names will be opposed with full force," he added.

According to investigating officer Bipin Chandra Pant, no circumstantial evidence has been found which can prove that Hamid Ali and his son were present at the crime scene. "But I have recorded the statements of the victim's family and they have alleged the father-son duo to be involved in the case. I will be completing the investigation soon and all the accused will be arrested," Pant added. All the accused, including Hamid Ali, are on the run.