Villagers allege youth’s custodial death during probe

Residents of Maseetan village in Sultanpur Lodhi have alleged that a 25-year-old youth of the village died in police custody on Friday night due to custodial torture by cops.

They also alleged that village panchayat members were too involved in the matter.

The victim, identified as Veerpal Singh (25), a resident of Maseetan village, had been brought to the Sultanpur Lodhi police station on Friday by villagers themselves regarding a case. Veerpal was a suspect in the case of the reported drug overdose death of the son of the village sarpanch which took place a day before Diwali.

Veerpal reportedly died on Friday night, after which his family and Maseetan villagers on Saturday held a protest and sloganeering against the police and the state government outside the Sultanpur Lodhi Civil Hospital.

The kin of the youth alleged that he was beaten up and tortured in police custody. They alleged that village panchayat members too joined in beating him up last night. The Kapurthala police have refuted the allegations and, in turn, alleged that the youth died due to drug overdose.

Malkit Singh, an uncle of the deceased, alleged, "His (the youth's) family presented him to the police yesterday. At night, he was killed. The police beat him up and members of the panchayat were also here. Cops only called us up to say our boy was at the hospital."

Rahul, Veerpal's brother who claimed he was taken into custody along with him, alleged, "My brother was brought here on suspicion. They beat him up in the afternoon and all night, and thereafter, tried to get him to consume chitta. He was brought regarding the death of the sarpanch's son. The sarpanch's son died after taking an injection, after which, we were called to go and look for him. They have framed us in that case. At night, panchayat members also came in a car. They beat us up. When my brother died, the police tried to administer him chitta."

When asked whether his brother did drugs before, Rahul said, "He did drugs a bit, but not very much."

Irate villagers, including Veerpal's mother and other women and elders from the village, raised slogans against the police and the government. They also sat outside the Sultanpur Lodhi Civil Hospital to demand justice, saying they wouldn't cremate Veerpal's body until justice was done.

SSP Kapurthala, Gaurav Toora, said, "The youth died due to drug overdose. He already has a case under Section 27 of the NDPS Act against him. He has had a history of drug use and overdose. Villagers themselves handed him over to the police, after which he was taken into preventive custody. He was legally under custody when the incident took place. His health deteriorated at night. And in the morning, he was checked up at the hospital and declared brought dead. All police stations have CCTV cameras. An application has been moved to the judicial magistrate. A judicial inquiry is conducted in the custody cases as per the protocol. Whatever the findings of the report, we will proceed as per that."

The SSP confirmed that Veerpal was brought in connection with the suspected drug overdose case of sarpanch's son. The SSP added, "Villagers themselves brought him and alleged that he (Veerpal) was selling drugs in the village."

Meanwhile, SHO, Sultanpur Lodhi, Sonamdeep Kaur, said, "The youth died at 8 am this morning. The family of the youth has been in the dark about many issues. The CCTV footage of the police station is under review. All facts will come to fore in the judicial inquiry."