Cuttack, March 23: A petition was filed in Orissa High Court today seeking a CBI probe into the custodial death of one Nakula Kumar Dehuri on March 1.
The petition also sought compensation of Rs 10 lakh for the death.
Police had claimed that Nakula was detained at the Chamakhandi police station in Ganjam district in the intervening night of February 28 and March 1.
His body was found hanging from an iron rod in the cell’s window around 8.30am. He was taken to the Maharaja Krishna Chandra Gajapati (M.K.C.G.) Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur where he died at 11.10am. Police had claimed it to be a case of suicide.
But Nakula’s 62-year-old mother Ritima Dehuri of Kankanamendhi in Daspala area of Nayagarh district has filed the petition alleging that her son had died in police custody “as a result of custodial torture”.
She has alleged that her son was missing since February 9 as police had arrested him on false charges and kept him in custody without producing him before any magistrate.
While seeking a CBI probe into the death of her son, the mother has alleged: “The police personnel did not prepare a memo of arrest and did not inform any friend and relative or any other person known to me about his arrest. The police also did not notify the time, place of arrest and venue of custody of my son.”
“The provision under Section 176(1-A) of the Criminal Procedure Code prescribes that if any person dies or disappears while in the custody of police or in any other custody authorised by the magistrate or the court under CrPC in addition to the inquiry or investigation held by the police, an inquiry shall be held by judicial magistrate. In this case no such inquiry was held by any judicial magistrate,” the petition alleged. “Admittedly, Nakula was not at all produced before any magistrate,” the petition alleged.
Seeking compensation of Rs 10 lakh for her son’s custodial death, the mother, who is a widow, said that her son was “an able young man and an earning person” who looked after her and other members of the family. The death of her son is an “irreparable loss to the family”, she said.
