26-YEAR-OLD DIES BY SUICIDE IN EAST DELHI, A DAY AFTER BEING BEATEN BY LOCAL RESIDENTS

NEW DELHI: A 26-year-old man was found dead at his home in East Delhi’s New Ashok Nagar last week, in what the police said appeared to be a case of suicide, prompting his family to allege that he took the step because of being “beaten and humiliated” by some local residents and the police a day earlier.

The family approached the police with CCTV camera footage in which the man is seen being roughed up, but the police said they are yet to determine if he was manhandled by local residents alone or if the police were also involved, as the victim’s family alleged.

The police said that while they were looking into the allegations, they said there was little evidence to suggest his suicide was prompted by the previous day’s events.

The victim’s brother said that when the victim got home on the evening of May 19, he did not open the door because he was drunk at that time.

“I couldn’t wake up in time and my brother decided to break open a side glass window to get into the house,” said the victim’s brother, who was alone in the house at that time.

The police said that as he broke the window open, he accidentally damaged a neighbourhood gas pipeline. This infuriated some residents who allegedly beat him up, the victim’s brother and police said.

Soon, the police arrived at the spot, and the victim’s brother alleged that the police slapped him repeatedly. “When the police decided to take only my brother to the police station, he crawled under the police vehicle [to escape],” the brother said. Soon after, the matter was settled at the spot itself, he said. No police case has been filed in the death so far.

“Legal proceedings into the cause of the death are going on. The allegations made by his family will be looked into,” said Deepak Yadav, DCP (east).

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