The state government on Saturday suspended a sub-inspector and the officer-in-charge of Nabagram police in Murshidabad after a youth detained for three days as a suspect in a theft case died in custody on Friday night.

The police claimed that around 9pm on Friday, Gobinda Ghosh, 28, a day labourer from Singar village, was found hanging inside a washroom of the police station. Gobinda was rushed to a local hospital in critical condition and attending doctors declared him dead.

Gobinda had been detained on Wednesday.

While the police claimed that Gobinda committed suicide, his family members alleged that he was beaten to death to extract a false confession.

“There were several injury marks on his body, which shows the kind of torture he suffered,” the victim’s father, Sasti Ghosh, 60, said.

Family members said Gobinda was detained on Wednesday as one of the seven suspects in connection with a theft at the residence of his neighbour Pradip Ghosh, who is a cop with Calcutta police. Gobinda was picked up from his residence on the basis of a complaint lodged by Pradip.

Sources said that since Wednesday, Gobinda had been detained at the police station and questioned repeatedly about the theft. He was not produced before the court but tortured for a confession, the sources said. On Friday night, the detention became public after Gobinda was found hanging in the washroom of the police station.

Claiming that his son was innocent, Sasti said: “On the day of the alleged theft, my son was busy working at the army barracks in Nabagram. I had submitted the evidence of his job there. But the police refused to listen and killed him. They tortured my son in custody for three days and killed him only to satisfy the complainant who is a cop.”

The news of Gobinda’s death triggered tension at Nabagram on Friday night with hundreds attacking the police station, prompting cops to lathicharge and fire teargas shells.

Villagers turned violent again on Saturday morning when a police team went to the area. They chased the cops, compelling them to flee. Senior police officers later held talks with the Yadav Mahasabha, a community organisation, to bring the situation under control.

The SP of Murshidabad police district, Surinder Singh, on Saturday announced the suspension of Nabagram OC Amit Bhakat and sub-inspector Shyamal Mondal, the investigating officer in the case, with immediate effect.

Trinamul leaders and activists of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) have blamed the police.

Trinamul’s Nabagram MLA Kanai Mondal said: “The role of the police is very unfortunate. I have told the police administration to punish the officers responsible for this unfortunate death.”

Rahul Chakraborty, a central secretariat member of the APDR, said: “It is the duty of the police officer concerned to forward the accused to the nearest judicial magistrate’s court if he thinks the probe cannot be completed within 24 hours. But it is unfortunate that the OC detained him in lock-up for more than 72 hours and apparently tortured him for a confession.”

Additional superintendent of police (Lalbag) Asim Khan said: “We have begun a
probe based on a complaint lodged by the family of the deceased. As a preliminary action, we have suspended two officers.”