Theft accused kills himself in Ranchi’s Ratu police station, family cries foul

Source: hindustantimes.com

In yet another custodial death in Jharkhand this month, a 24-year-old man, arrested in a theft case, allegedly died by killing himself on Thursday night in Ranchi’s Ratu police station.

According to the police, the deceased Naisar Ansari was kept in the police station’s lock-up along with another accused Amar Naik. He went to the bathroom attached with the lock-up late at night with a piece of blanket and hanged himself from the rod fixed in the ventilator. The other accused in the cell, who was then sleeping, raised the alarm around 4 am when he noticed the incident, police said.

Ansari’s family members, however, cried foul play. “We got information that Naisar was arrested on Tuesday. When we reached the police station the next day, we were not allowed by the policemen to meet him. On Friday, we saw his body. This is not a case of suicide,” said, Guljaan Bibi, mother of the deceased, alleging that his son has been murdered.

Ansari originally hailed from Lawalong area of Simaria’s sub-division in Chatra district. A daily wage earner, he had been residing with his in-laws at Ratu’s Alkamar colony for the last six months.

Ansari, along with three others, were wanted by the police in connection with a theft case. It was alleged that the four accused had stolen Rs 70,000 in cash and a mobile phone from the house of one Nazir Ansari of the same Alkamar colony on August 20.

The police, however, said Asnari was arrested on Thursday and not Tuesday as being alleged by the family. “Naisar was arrested on August 22 (Thursday) evening in the theft case, in which his father-in-law too was an accused. He was then put up in the police lock-up where he killed himself. His body has been sent for autopsy and an inquiry has been set up,” said Ranchi superintendent of police (rural) Ashutosh Shekhar.

“As per the information gathered from family members, the deceased was under stress due to several problems on family front. He was currently residing at his in-laws house due to this.”

Later in the day, hundreds of residents of Alkamar colony assembled at Ratu police station, demanding a fair probe into the matter.

Earlier in the month, a 30-year-old man Ashish Tudu, arrested for planning to execute a robbery, had allegedly killed himself on August 5 at a vacant flat of a three-storey police quarters under Sikaripara police station in Dumka district. Tudu had, reportedly, hanged himself from the ceiling of the kitchen in the night.

The incident, however, had exposed the functioning of the police, which kept the accused in a police quarter instead of a lock up.

Taking serious note of the matter, the Dumka SP had transferred Sikaripara police station officer-in-charge Satyendra Narayan Singh to police lines as a punishment posting.