Man found hanging inside lockup

■ Judicial inquiry launched to investigate death ● Suspecting foul play, one of his relatives said: ‘ The police is trying to hush up the matter as something else must have happened.’ ■ Gehlot was detained for beating wife

In a suspected case of custodial death, a 52- year- old man was found hanging inside the lockup of east Delhi’s Shakarpur police station on Tuesday night. Even as the Delhi police maintained that the deceased, identified as Sushil Gehlot, had hanged himself from a rod jutting out of the lockup gate, his family members alleged foul play and dismissed the police theory as baseless. A judicial inquiry has been launched to investigate the death. According to sources in the police, Sushil Gehlot, an autodriver and resident of Shakarpur, was brought to the police station on Tuesday at about 2 pm after his wife reportedly called the PCR complaining of physical harassment. “We received a call from his wife that her husband was beating her and his 70- year- old mother after they refused to give him money,” said the police, adding, “Gehlot, we were told, was an alcoholic.”

After the complaint, the cops said, a PCR rushed to his house and on seeing him beating his wife brought Gehlot to the Shakarpur police station where he was booked under Section 107/ of 51 CrPC and lodged in the lockup as preventive detention.

The police added that, however, in the lockup Gehlot suddenly turned violent and started hurting himself. “We somehow managed to calm him down and a word was also sent to his family members about his activities,” added the cops.

Later, at about 10.30 pm, a police constable manning the lockup spotted him hanging from an iron rod jutting from the gate. He used the string of his innerwear to commit sui- cide, said the police. “The constable, who had gone to arrange food for him saw him hanging on his return and informed his senior about the incident after which he was rushed to Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital where he was declared brought dead by the doctors,” the police said.

One of Gehlot’s relatives said: “By the time we reached police station he had already been taken to the hospital and we were informed that he had committed suicide.”

Suspecting foul play in the incident, the relative said: “At about 9 pm, his son gave food to him in the police station and he was fine then,” adding, “The police is trying to hush up the matter as something else must have happened.”

Another relative alleged that the cops did not even allow them to see Gehlot’s body before the autopsy.

Senior Delhi police officers remained unavailable and maintained unofficially that autopsy report is awaited and a judicial inquiry had been initiated. Gehlot is survived by his mother, wife, three daughters and two sons.