Police to probe man’s claims that cops falsely declared his son dead

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police on Tuesday ordered an inquiry on a northwest Delhi resident’s allegations that police had falsely declared his son dead and alleged that he was ‘mentally unstable because of his son’s death’.

Police had made the allegations in a reply to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), which had asked the police for an action taken report on the man’s complaint to the PMO.

Harpal Singh Rana told HT he had filed a complaint alleging police were allegedly buying cameras at a price which was many times the market rate. When the prime minister’s office (PMO) sought a clarification on his allegations, the police told the PMO that Rana was “mentally unstable” due to his son’s death and hence filed false complaints.

On Tuesday, Akhil, who identified himself as Rana’s son, spoke to journalists and shared a copy of the reply the police had sent to the PMO.

“On June 30 last year, my father got a note from PMO, which was the reply police had sent them. Police had told the PMO that I was dead. They also claimed that my father had refused to give any statement and that his allegations about the CCTV camera overpricing was baseless,” Akhil said.

Akhil said that his father had earlier sought a reply from the Delhi police under the Right to Information Act regarding the cost of installation of the cameras in some of the major city markets. After receiving the reply, he filed a complaint with the PMO alleging that Rs 227 crore was spent by police in buying 3,309 cameras, which was much higher than market costs.

Responding to these allegations, Delhi Police spokesperson Madhur Verma said a team headed by joint commissioner of police (northern range) Sagarpreet Hooda is probing the circumstances under which the police declared Akhil dead.

IDENTITY CONFUSION

DCP northwest Aslam Khan said that in April 2016, a police team from Swaroop Nagar police station had gone to Rana’s neighbourhood. Khan said police mistook Rana for a neighbour Vijay Pal Rana, who had lost his son. “The team spoke to two neighbours who in their statements said that Rana had lost his son and was mentally unstable because of that. We are probing the goof up and how it remained unverified back then,” said DCP Khan.

PROCUREMENT

On allegations of police buying the camera’s at prices more than the market rates, police spokesperson Verma said that all are supplied by government-run Electronics Corporation of India Limited.