The station house officer of a police station in Uttar Pradesh’s Chandauli district was suspended after a family alleged that a woman had died after being assaulted by policemen during a raid on Sunday, ANI reported, citing the district magistrate.
The police had earlier denied the allegations, saying that the woman appeared to have died by suicide. However, the cause of death in the postmortem report was marked unknown.
The alleged incident took place around 4 pm on Sunday when the police raided the house of gangster Kanhaiya Yadav in Manrajpur village to arrest him after a non-bailable warrant was issued against him, The Indian Express reported. Yadav had been accused in a case of illegal sand mining, according to NDTV.
However, as the police officials could not find Yadav at his home, they allegedly tried to take his brother with them, according to The Times of India. Yadav’s daughter, Nisha, tried to stop the police, following which she was allegedly beaten by the officer.
In a video widely shared on social media, a woman could be seen saying that her elder sister was killed by the police. On being asked if she had also been beaten up, the woman says yes.
Citing the postmortem report, Chandauli Superintendent of Police Ankur Agarwal said on Monday that the woman sustained two minor injuries – one her neck and on the left jaw.
When asked about the allegations that the women was raped, Agarwal said that there are no external or internal injuries on the woman’s body. He said that the postmortem report has been sent to the forensics team.
The police officer added there would be more clarity in the incident after the forensics team submits its report.
“Nisha, daughter of gangster Kanhaiya Yadav was found dead in her house,” Varanasi District Magistrate Sanjeev Singh had told mediapersons. “The deceased was allegedly thrashed by the SHO [station house officer] of Saiyyedraja police station after which she died.”
Singh said that Yadav’s younger daughter was also allegedly beaten and has suffered serious injuries. She was admitted to a local hospital for treatment.
“The SHO was suspended and the process is underway to lodge an FIR [first information report] after getting a complaint from the family of the deceased,” Singh added, according to ANI.
However, police denied the allegations and said the team had returned after they could not find Yadav.
“The police raid party, which had women constables as well, went in around 4 or 4.30 [pm] and there is video video evidence for this...The police did not find the accused at his home and so they left,” Agarwal had said earlier. “Around 6 [pm], it surfaced that the woman is dead. Prima facie it appears that the death is due to some domestic issue or suicide, we are awaiting the post-mortem report.”
The incident had led to a protest by villagers on Sunday, according to The Times of India. They attempted to block National Highway-2 and damaged an ambulance. Heavy police deployment has been done in the area.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav demanded that a case of murder should be registered against the guilty policeman. “Police has become killer in UP,” Akhilesh Yadav wrote in a tweet. “Innocent civilians are being killed continuously by the BJP government.”
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