Karnal man found dead, police confused over area jurisdiction

30-YEAR-OLD DEVINDER SINGH, WHO WORKED AS CAR MECHANIC, WAS FOUND DEAD UNDER SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES

KARNAL: A 30-year-old resident of Karnal, Devinder Singh, was found dead under suspicious circumstances near the national highway-1 near here in the wee hours of Monday.

However, confusion prevailed over registering a case in this connection as two police stations of the district were unsure about the jurisdiction of the area where the body was found.

Officials at the Sector-4 police post under the city police station allegedly refused to register a case, claiming it was the duty of Madhuban police station. Till the time of filing this report, no case was filed.

In the absence of non-registration of a first information report (FIR), postmortem examination was not performed on Monday.

Meanwhile, inspector general of police (Karnal range) Hanif Qureshi told HT that he would get the matter enquired as to why the case was not registered and punitive action would be initiated against the erring officials.

“It is very unfor tunate. Officials at the police stations and down the line have already been asked to file a case immediately irrespective of the jurisdiction. In such circumstances, case details are forwarded to the police station concerned for further investigation,” said the IGP.

DECEASED’S KIN PROTEST

Agitated over the alleged indifferent attitude of the police authorities, deceased’s family members and relatives staged a protest at the hospital chowk in Karnal and demanded action against the erring policemen for harassment. A resident of Motinagar locality of Karnal, Devinder Singh was a car mechanic. His family claimed that Devinder left the house on Sunday night along with two persons, including a policeman, residing in the locality.

“In the morning, we learnt about his body lying near Neelkanth dhabha. As we approached the police post at Sector 4, they refused to entertain our complaint citing the jurisdiction issue. The body was taken to Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College for postmortem and we are unable to perform last rites in a dignified manner,” Jagjit Singh, a relative told reporters.

City police station officiating SHO Om Prakash said that due to certain confusion, there was delay in registering a case.

He said that initially it appeared to be a case of road accident but later the family alleged that it was a murder. Postmortem examination would be conducted by a board of doctors on Tuesday to ascertain the exact cause of death, he added.