Karnal city SHO suspended, sent to police lines, says SP

KARNAL:TWO days after three cops were booked on the charge of murder following the death of a 52-year-old man in Karnal police’s custody, the Karnal superintendent of police (SP), Surender Singh Bhoria, on Sunday suspended the city police station in-charge.

The SP said station house officer (SHO) Satish Kumar has been suspended and sent to the Police Lines. He, however, added that police have also registered a first information report (FIR) against unidentified persons, who had vandalised a police post and a station after the incident.

When asked about the reason behind the death, the SP said, “Police are waiting for the postmortem report. Meanwhile, a judicial inquiry has been ordered in the case.”

It is pertinent to mention here that Jeba Singh Ram, a scrap dealer of Karnal’s Chand Saraya Colony, was arrested on Thursday evening after he was found carrying 150-gram contraband (ganja).

But the police claimed his health deteriorated after the arrest and he was taken to Karnal’s Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College where the doctors declared him brought dead.

His family later resorted to holding a protest and vandalising the Nehru Place police post and Karnal police station.

They had also damaged vehicles parked outside the police station. They had accused the police of inflicting torture on him in the custody.

Later, on the complaint of Jeba’s family members, three cops were booked under Sections 302 (murder) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and relevant sections of the SC/ST Act.

The SP had admitted lapses on the part of police and said incidents of violence at the police station could have been averted.

“Action is being taken against the officials, who failed to act promptly,” he had said.