JAMMU, Mar 19: A magisterial inquiry was started on Sunday into the death of a policeman shortly after his arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation on graft charges in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district, officials said.
Head Constable Mushtaq Ahmad, a resident of Billawar, was allegedly caught red-handed on Saturday while taking a bribe of Rs 3000 at women police station in Kathua, a few hours before his death.
“On the directions of the deputy commissioner, Kathua, we have started the magisterial probe into the death of the policeman and will submit our report in the shortest possible time,” Additional Deputy Commissioner, Vishav Partap Singh said.
Singh, who was tasked to conduct the magisterial inquiry, supervised the postmortem of the deceased by a board of doctors at the Government Medical College (GMC) hospital on Sunday.
The body of the deceased was handed over to his family for last rites after completion of formalities, officials said.
The relatives and neighbours of the deceased policeman, including his wife and two children, were also present and demanded registration of an FIR against CBI in connection with his death.
“He was gentleman and apparently trapped in a false case…If for the sake of argument, we believe that he was caught accepting bribe but that does not mean he should have been interrogated in such a way that led to his death,” Saparch Sanjiv Kumar, also a neighbour of the deceased, told reporters.
He questioned the silence of the agency over the death of the policeman and requested the Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and central government to ensure “justice with the family of the deceased”.
Deputy Inspector General of Police, Jammu-Samba-Kathua Range, Shakti Kumar Pathak said the police have started inquest proceedings into the case.
“It was a CBI trap and the death happened during this process. He collapsed and was taken by a police party to the hospital where he was declared brought dead by the doctors,” he said.
He said the investigation is meant to unveil the truth which ultimately leads to justice.
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