Three ‘tortured’ over theft in Chetganj police lock-up

VARANASI: Three persons were allegedly tortured in

Chetganj police lock-up

in the city on Tuesday over suspicion of involvement in a theft at the shop of mayor Mridula Jaiswal’s husband Radhakrishna Jaiswal.


CO Chetganj Ankita Singh said on Wednesday that the matter was in her knowledge and she will seek instructions from the higher-ups in this connection before taking any action.

The three persons — Prabhunath Yadav, Babu Ahmad and Anand Kumar — work at Radhakrishna’s auto-mobile shop in Piplani Katra locality under Chetganj

police

jurisdiction. They were picked up for questioning by the Chetganj police after Radhakrishna filed an FIR on Tuesday against unknown persons in connection with a theft of Rs. 40,000, which he came across on Monday.

The severity of the torture could be gauged by the fact that they were unable to stand or sit properly and had to be admitted to the

Shiv Prasad Gupta

divisional hospital for treatment on Tuesday night.

“An FIR was lodged against unknown persons under sections 457 (lurking house-trespass or house-breaking by night in order to commit offence punishable with imprisonment) and 380 (theft in dwelling house) of IPC in connection with the theft,” said Chetganj Inspector Dinesh Pandey.

According to Radhakrishna, the police picked up the trio for interrogation only, but they were badly tortured. “Seeking our cooperation in the investigation, the police wanted to interrogate our employees. They took them to the police station. Later, when I came to know that they were beaten badly in police lock-up, I sent my men to the police station to look into the matter,” Radhakrishna told TOI on Wednesday.

“Seeing their horrible condition, my men admitted them to the hospital. They are our old employees and have been working with us for years. The employees have alleged that they were beaten up by the police in the lock-up during interrogation,” he added.

When asked if he would lodge a police complaint against the torture, Radhakrishna said, “Presently, we are busy in taking care of our employees. We will think about it later.”

Inspector Chetganj denied the allegation of torture in lock-up. “Radhakrishna Jaiswal himself raised suspicion over these persons in the theft case seeking interrogation. They were set free after interrogation,” the Inspector told TOI.