Calcutta High Court on Friday asked the city police commissioner to preserve all CCTV footage of Amherst Street police station related to the death of 42-year-old Ashok Kumar Singh, who was called to the police station for an inquiry related to a missing mobile phone. Singh died minutes after entering the station.
Singh’s family alleged police torture. The police have refuted the charges.
The court also asked the police to shift and preserve the body of the deceased from the Calcutta police morgue at the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital to the SSKM Hospital morgue. The body was shifted on Friday evening.
Friday’s high court order quoted the post-mortem report submitted by the police as saying: “Death was due to the effects of Subarachnoid Haemorrhage as a sequence of rupture of aneurysm as described above. Further opinion be given after the receipt of FSL reports and Histopathology reports.”
A PIL has been filed against the state government alleging police torture.
Metro collates the sequence of events, allegations and the findings till now:
What happened?
Ashok Kumar Singh, 42, a resident of 58B, Patuatola Lane was called to Amherst Street police station on Wednesday reportedly to return an allegedly stolen mobile phone. Singh went to the police station around 5.45pm. Sometime later, his relatives entered the police station looking for him and found him lying unconscious on the floor. He was declared dead at Calcutta Medical College and Hospital.
Family’s allegations
One of Singh’s relatives, Sharad Jaiswal, has filed a complaint with the Amherst Street police station alleging that Singh was tortured at the police station.
“We just want to know the truth. We have sought CCTV footage of the room where he was interrogated. How is it possible that a healthy man walks into the police station and ends up dead?” Jaiswal told Metro.
Police version
According to senior officers of Calcutta police, Singh entered Amherst Street police station at 5.43pm and came out at 5.45pm. “According to the CCTV footage, he again entered the police station at 5.46pm and was seen going towards the room of the officer who had called him. This portion is beyond CCTV coverage,” said an officer at the city police headquarters.
Next, Singh is said to have called a local BJP leader named Madan Lal Gupta asking where or to whom he should hand over the
phone.
“Gupta called a sergeant at 6.02pm. The sergeant went to meet Singh and saw that Singh was waiting outside a room. At 6.03pm, Singh entered the room. At 6.04pm, the officer stepped out and met two of Singh’s relatives who had just entered the police station looking for Singh,” said the officer.
The relatives were told that Singh was unwell. On entering the room, the relatives said they found him unconscious.
Summoned illegally?
Singh’s family members said Singh did not receive any formal police summons to appear before them.
According to the law, the police or any investigating agency can issue a summons to an individual in the capacity of being an accused or a witness in a specific case. The case reference has to be mentioned in the summons.
However, police officers said that in cases that involve recovery of stolen or missing mobile phones, the person(s) involved are called to the police station over the phone.
“We follow a protocol in such cases. Once a missing diary of a phone is registered, the details are shared with the division’s monitoring cell. The monitoring cell starts to track the location of the missing phone using its IMEI number. If the phone is operational, the person using it is called and asked to return the phone,” said the officer.
In a majority of the cases, the officer said, the person who is found to be using a
stolen phone is unaware of the fact that it is a stolen item.
“If the person says that he has purchased the phone second-hand, we inform him that it is a stolen property and needs to be returned. This has happened in this case too. Singh was asked to return the phone at his local police station,” said the officer.
Post-mortem report
The police said that according to the opinion of the doctor, Singh may have been suffering from a brain aneurysm (balloon-like growth) that had formed and suddenly ruptured.
The post-mortem findings that the police spoke of had been verbally conveyed to the family and they mentioned a medical history of “pre-existing disease”.
Singh’s family said they were not aware of any pre-existing disease.
PIL in high court
Lawyer and BJP leader Priyanka Tibrewal has filed the PIL against the state government accusing police of excess that allegedly caused Singh’s death. The case would be heard next on November 23.