A 35 year old Muslim man died while he was taken in police custody on Monday in Uttar Pradesh Sambhal town.
Irfan’s body was found at the Ratti police outpost of the Nakasa police station area.
The family and hundreds of locals protested Irfan’s death alleging foul play and police torture. Following the chaos, Security personnel from two police stations were deployed to maintain peace.
Upon receiving the devastating news the family was left in complete shock and overwhelmed with grief. A viral video captured their heart wrenching reactions as they arrived to see the body.
The visibly distraught wife of the victim, overwhelmed by shock and grief, said to the media, “ They took my husband to the police outpost where he was mercilessly beaten to death. We begged them and told them that he is unwell and he should be given some time to take medicines but they didn’t listen to us at all.”
According to the family, Irfan, who had undergone an operation just a day before, was not allowed to take medicines when four policemen forcefully took him away.
According to the police Irfan died of cardiac arrest and the body has been sent for postmortem.
“They shoved him into their jeep. If only he was allowed to take medicines, he would be alive today,” she added.
The police stated that an aunt of Irfan had filed a complaint claiming that he hadn’t returned money he had borrowed from her some months ago.
Narrating her ordeal, Reshma, the deceased’s wife said, “We have been married for 22 years and have five children who are now orphans. His aunt was the head of the family and Irfan had given her some money. It was his aunt’s son who cheated but the police have accused Irfan of taking money from her and not returning it.”
A local news channel, Amar Ujala reported that the policeman left Irfan’s body unattended and fled from the area.
The SP of Sambhal told media, “Today at 11:30 a.m. a women gave an application to Raisatti police post of Nakasha police station stating that her son, Arman beats her and rupees worth 6 lakh as house share were given through Irfan and now he is not returning the money. To investigate the matter a team was sent to his house and was brought to the outpost. Irfan wanted to take medicine which was given but he then complained of chest pain and was taken to hospital with his son, where he died.”
The son of Irfan, Afran Raza alleged, “The police forcefully took my father from home; they did not let him have medicines.” The police said that Irfan and his son only stayed in the outpost only for a few minutes and medicines were given to him on time. The family has rejected their claims.
Another police officer said that an inquiry will be made as to what happened when he was taken for interrogation.
