Farmer dies in custody, 5 cops suspended

Tribune News Service

Jaipur, June 25

Thirty-five-year-old farmer Om Prakash, arrested on the charges of having a brawl with power sector employees related to erratic electricity, has died under mysterious circumstances at Bhopalgarh police station of Jodhpur district.

A judicial inquiry has been ordered, and five cops, including SHO Shivlahri posted at Bhopalgarh police station, have been suspended on Friday night, IG-Jodhpur Range Girdhari Lal Sharma told TNS.

The body of Om Prakash was handed over to the family after postmortem on Friday afternoon, the IGP said.

Om Prakash was arrested on Wednesday night for clash with the staff of a Grid Sub-Station (GSS) in Bhopalgarh, where he went for a complaint against erratic power supply and transformer-related issues. 

Villagers who held a protest on Thursday and continued till Friday morning alleged that Om Prakash was mercilessly beaten up by the cops resulting in his death on June 23.

Meanwhile, in a statement, Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan Vidhan Sabha Rameshwar Dudi condemned the death and alleged that it was the system failure of the BJP government and highhandedness of police against farmers.