Less than a fortnight after Jharkhand High Court called for a report from district judges on pending applications of judicial inquiries in custodial deaths, another youth died in police custody in the Hazaribagh district of the state.

The youth has been identified as Mohammed Ashfaque Khan.

According to the police statement, Khan, 22, was found unconscious in the lock-up of Barhi police station of Hazaribagh district and was rushed to the Barhi sub-divisional hospital where the doctors declared him brought dead around 11.30am on Tuesday.

The youth was yet to be presented before a magistrate for judicial custody.

Barhi deputy superintendent of police Nazir Akhtar told The Telegraph that the youth had been caught by the locals on Monday while he was attempting to enter a house and was handed over to the police.

He also claimed that there was no external injury when the youth was handed over to the police by the locals around 4.30pm on Monday.

“We are following the guidelines of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and would have a magisterial inquiry and an autopsy done by a specially constituted medical board. We will also recommend the case for a CID investigation. So it would be premature to specify the reason for death at the moment.

“However, prima facie it appears to be a case of suicide but we will go by the CID investigation and autopsy report,” said Hazaribagh superintendent of police (SP) Manoj Ratan Chothe to the local scribes.

The SP did not respond to several calls made by this correspondent on his official number.

The SP also told the local scribes that disciplinary action would be initiated against those persons who were in charge of the custody for dereliction of duty. He also claimed that the youth had a criminal antecedent and had several cases lodged in different police stations.

Hazaribagh deputy commissioner Nancy Sahay, speaking to The Telegraph, said that Barhi circle officer Debashish Toppo has been deputed for the magisterial inquest while a team of senior doctors would be constituted for the autopsy on the deceased youth.

“We will decide on the compensation part for the relatives of the deceased youth on the basis of the investigation report by the police and the administration,” said Sahay.

However, the relatives claimed that the youth had injury marks on the chest and blood was oozing from his ears when they saw the body at the hospital.

They also blocked the Barhi-Dhanbad road for several hours, demanding the arrest of the cops responsible for the death and compensation to the family.

Jharkhand High Court bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Mishra and Justice Ananda Sen, on July 5 had called for a report from the district judges of Jharkhand with respect to applications pending before them forholding a judicial inquiry in cases of custodial deaths and timeframe to complete the inquiry, acting on a PIL filed by one Mumtaz Ansari through his legal counsel Shadab Ansari.

The high court had directed that the report should be submitted before the court by July 20.