Our Correspondent
Kullu, October 22
One person reportedly committed suicide in police custody at Manikaran police post in the Parbati valley of this district, 45 km from here, yesterday.
The police had detained Naga Baba on October 15 and he was being questioned in the US national Justin Alexander Shetler (35) missing case. Justin had gone missing while trekking in the Parbati valley on August 22. Justin’s friend had reported to the police on October 3 that Shetler had gone trekking in the Parbati valley on August 22 and no contact had been established with him since then.
Justin’s mother C Susanne Reeb alleged that Naga Baba, with whom her son stayed for a few days somewhere near the Mantalai lake, might have a hand in his kidnapping. The police had registered an FIR and detained Naga Baba for questioning.
She had also appealed to Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to speed up the rescue and search operation. The Chief Minister on their request had provided the services of his official helicopter to trace the missing trekker. However, no clues were found about the whereabouts of Justin. Earlier also, Justin’s mother had hired a private chopper to trace her son.
Kullu SP Padam Chand said Naga Baba hanged himself using his “dhoti” in police custody. He said a postmortem of the deceased had been conducted at the Kullu hospital today.
He said police teams had been deployed to conduct search operations. Baba’s porter had not been arrested so far as he had still not returned from trekking.
Soldier commits suicide
Hamirpur: Pawan Kumar, a soldier of the Indian Army posted in Jammu, committed suicide at Pansai village on the intervening night of October 20 and 21.
The body was found hanging from a ceiling fan in his house. The police had recovered a suicide note from Pawan’s house in which he mentioned that he took this extreme step following threats from his wife.
It was learnt that Pawan’s wife had applied for an anticipatory bail from a court in Nadaun. Additional Superintendent of Police Shiv Kumar Sharma said a case was registered and investigation had begun.
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