Youth’s kin, friends cry custodial torture
Say they were given electric shocks to reveal whereabouts of Gulshan who was later found dead
KURUKSHETRA: Four youths, including two minors, and father of Gulshan Kumar (18), named as prime suspect in the rape-murder case and subsequently found dead in canal, have accused the police of torturing them to confess to their involvement in the abduction and killing of the 15-year-old girl.
The brutalised body of the Class-10 student, who allegedly had an affair with Gulshan, was found on January 12 night near a canal in Jind’s Safidon town, 110km from her village Jhansa in Kurukshetra district.
Gulshan’s father Jashvinder Singh (55) said, “The police picked me like a criminal and tortured me to reveal the location of my son. They even tortured my 17-year-old nephew and some of Gulshan’s friends to admit that they helped him in kidnapping and murdering the girl.
“When I came home yesterday evening I came to know that Gulshan was no more,” he said. Gulshan’s cousin, a minor, alleged that the police picked him from his aunt’s house at Landa village and tortured in custody.
“In custody, they asked me to remove my clothes, including undergarments, and beat me up mercilessly besides using an abusive language. They tied my hands and gave electric shocks on my private parts. They also stretched my legs and it happened for two days,” he added.
Sagar (18), a classmate of Gulshan, said, “The police detained me on January 13 and took me to a police station where some cops, who were under the influence of alcohol, beat me up to confess that I had helped Gulshan.”
Gulshan’s younger brother said, “They took me to the Jhansa police station on January 13 and beat me up repeatedly.”
Jashvinder’s family members said had Gulshan’s body not been recovered, the police would not have released the youths and him and would have tortured them for more days. They said they have lost faith in the police and the chief minister to hand over the case to the CBI.
The police, however, denied claims of custodial torture. They got conducted medical examination of the youths at the Kurukshetra civil hospital after a protest by their family members but no major injuries were found in the report.
Kurukshetra SP Abhishek Garg also denied custodial torture saying action can be taken only on the basis of medical report. “The medical report will not reveal that they gave us electric shock and spread our legs,” the youths said. DSP Dheeraj Singh said, “Since there is no mention of injuries in the medical report how they can accuse the police of torture.”
MINOR’S DETENTION IN VIOLATION OF JJ ACT
The police detained the two minors, aged 17 and 16, without the knowledge of the child rights panel in violation of the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act.
“As per the law, the police cannot keep minors in custody and torture them. This is violation of the Juvenile Justice Act,” Paramjit Singh Badola, member of the Haryana State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, said.