Police personnel have been deployed at Bishada in Uttar Pradesh where villagers staged massive demonstrations on Wednesday to protest against the alleged custodial death of one of the accused in the Dadri lynching case. The protesters, who held a rally from deceased Ravin’s house, burnt effigies of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. The district administration has imposed Section 144 in the area (which prohibits large groups of people gathering in public areas) and residents of the area have been asked to stay indoors, reported The Hindu.
Ravin died of kidney and respiratory failure at a Delhi hospital on Tuesday evening. His family, however, had alleged foul play on the part of jail authorities. According to them, he was kept in a separate cell and was assaulted on September 30 while he was in judicial custody. After his death, protesters also refused to cremate Ravin’s body and demanded an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation. Ravin's relative Om Mahesh told The Indian Express, “The jail officers who were behind his death should be charged with murder, suspended and arrested. The family should be given a compensation of Rs 1 crore and his wife should be given a government job.”
While District Magistrate NP Singh has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the death, the National Human Rights Commission took suo motu cognisance of the matter and issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh police, reported Deccan Herald. The director-general of prisons and the director-general of police, Uttar Pradesh, have been asked to submit a report within four weeks. According to The Hindu, the Uttar Pradesh government also ordered an investigation by the sub-divisional magistrate.
Protests in Dadri have been on from October 1 when the women whose relatives have been arrested in connection with the lynching case, demanded that Jaan Mohammad, the brother of victim Mohammed Akhlaq, be arrested for allegedly slaughtering a cow. On September 28 last year, Akhlaq was dragged out of his house and killed by a mob in Dadri on the suspicion that he stored and consumed beef. Local priest Sadhvi Har Siddhi Giri, who said that the women of the village will go to the jail to inquire about the health of the other accused, and added that the protests will continue till Jaan Mohammad was arrested.
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