Kin protest, seek arrest of cops

KARNAL: A day after two cops of Panipat police were booked for abetment to suicide after a 32-year-old farmer ended his life by consuming a poisonous substance at Bhapra village, agitated family members of the farmer, along with villagers, held a protest demanding arrest of the accused cops on Sunday.

The protesters accused the Panipat police of delaying arrest of ASI Subhash Chand and head constable Ved Prakash, who are facing allegations of harassing farmer Sunil Kumar and demanding bribe.

Since morning, hundreds of residents of Bhapra village reached Panipat civil hospital where the postmortem was being conducted. They refused to cremate the body till the police arrested the accused.

After getting information about the protest, Samalkha DSP Naresh Kumar and Panipat DSP Jagdeep Doon reached the spot and pacified the protesters and urged them to cremate the body. They told the villagers that the accused policemen have already been suspended and are facing charges under under Section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and investigation was going on. After assurance from DSP Naresh Kumar, the villagers cremated the body. The police are now waiting to record statements of family members of the victim for further investigation. Probe to ascertain the identity of the third cop allegedly involved in the case is also on. HTC