Tarn Taran police accused of keeping boy in illegal custody

AMRITSAR: A 40-year-old woman, Amandeep Kaur, from Amritsar’s Ranjit Avenue locality on Wednesday alleged that her son was tortured and kept in six-day illegal custody by the crime investigation agency (CIA) wing of Tarn Taran district police.

Tarn Taran police, however, say they had brought her son for questioning in a drug case and he was released immediately as no drugs were recovered from him.

In her complaint, Kaur said some unidentified men abducted her son Karan Singh, 18, on January

25 from Ranjit Avenue. A case under Section 346 (wrongful confinement in secret) was lodged two days after the complaint.

“On January 29, I got a call from an unknown number informing me about the detention of my son at the CIA staff office in Tarn Taran,” said Kaur, who runs a beauty parlour in Amritsar.

“After being released on January 31 night, my son told me that cops wanted him to confess to the recovery of 1kg heroin and a pistol, which he never possessed,” she said.

CIA Tarn Taran in-charge Harit Sharma said: “We had information that Karan was involved in drug smuggling. Karan had snatched money from our decoy customer while striking a drug deal. He was detained for questioning and was let off after we didn’t recover anything suspicious from him.”

On six-day illegal detention, Sharma said: “We didn’t keep him for such a long time. He was released forthwith after questioning.” Tarn Taran police didn’t inform the local police about Karan’s detention.

CIA IN-CHARGE DENIES CHARGE, SAYS 18-YR-OLD WAS RELEASED AFTER QUESTIONING IN A DRUG CASE