Nine years after the death of a 22-year-old Muslim man who was tortured in police custody, four constables, two police officers, one jailer, and a psychiatrist were booked for murder on August 2.
The conclusion that the victim, Mohsin, had been tortured to death is the seventh judgment rendered by a judicial officer since 2017. To date, seven judicial magistrates have heard the complaint filed by the victim’s mother, Seema Rais.
Seema Rais, a 55-year-old woman, waited for nine years to obtain justice for her elder son, who died on June 23, 2015. During these years, Seema and her husband, Mohammed Rais, faced several criminal charges. Two houses owned by the family were bulldozed without prior notice.
Magistrate Ashish Mishra charged four constables, two policemen, a jailer, and a psychiatrist with murder, criminal conspiracy, and tampering with evidence under the Indian Penal Code. The magistrate concluded that there was evidence indicating that the victim died due to torture in police and judicial custody after his family was unable to pay a bribe of ₹200,000.
While the family was occupied with trying to arrange the money, Mohsin was transferred to TT Nagar police station, where Sub-Inspector D.N. Yadav and Inspector Manish Rai Bhadoriya allegedly tortured him.
Mohsin, according to the FIR, was unable to speak and unable to walk. Mohsin also told his family that the police officers had tortured him with electric shocks and forced him to urinate on an electric heater and his nails were also pulled.
Mishra wrote in his 11-page order, “The applicant presented 14 witnesses out of which, three were private and all others were either policemen, doctors or compounders.”
When the case was moved to Bhopal district court in 2017, the accused were booked under murder charges on May 5 2018. Later, six magistrates heard the case since the order was not detailed.
Between 2018-2019 and 2022-2023, there were 687 reported deaths in police custody across the country. This data was presented in Parliament in August 2023. Gujarat and Maharashtra had the highest number of such deaths reported, while Madhya Pradesh was the third highest state for deaths in police custody.
Constable Ehsan, Murali, Dinesh, Chironji, jailer Alok Banner, Dr RN Sahu, sub-inspector D N Yadav and Manish Raj Bhadoriya, the 8 accused are to be presented in court on 25 September 2024. All the accused are on duty after the judgment and are yet to be suspended or fired.
The order stated, “Since the jail authorities realized that Mohsin had died, they tried to hide the truth by declaring Mohsin as a mentally challenged man with the help of the psychiatrist, Sahu.”
Sahu continues to work at a private clinic in Bhopal.
More than thirty FIRs were registered against Mohsin’s parents and his two brothers
Advocate Dinesh Tiwari, the family lawyer of Seema told Article 14, “It wasn’t Rais, but police who framed fake cases on the family to have monetary benefit and also to pressurize them to drop the case.”
Another family lawyer, Yawar Khan who fought the case of Mohsin said that he received many threats and pressure from authorities to drop the case.
