The victim's mother shows the picture of his son, Rocky
Family of a Gurdaspur youth died in police custody demands CBI probe
Harshabab Sidhu
Mohali, February 5, 2021:
The family of a 27-year-old man, who died on January 4 in Dhariwal, Gurdaspur, demanded a CBI probe into this matter and submitted their complaint to the Punjab CM office in this regard.
The family leveled allegations on a congress MLA for affecting the police investigation and for saving the accused Sarpanch of his party from arrest. The family alleged that the persons involved in the murder of the victim, Rocky Masih, are village Sarpanch and SHO of Dhariwal police station, Manjeet Singh.
Addressing media during a press conference here, the victim’s brother, Lucky, and his mother Veena alleged that on January 4, Rocky was beaten by village Sarpanch along with his accomplices in a street and was later locked in a house, where he was thrashed too. The Dhariwal police team reached the spot and took Rocky with them in the police station, where the police also tortured him. When his condition became serious, the cops took him to a nearby private hospital, where doctors declared him dead, they alleged.
As per the family, Rocky died in police custody as the Station House Officer of Dhariwal police station had thrashed him mercilessly. The victim’s family stated that they were not satisfied with the post mortem report of Rocky following which they had put his dead body on the road and held a protest there. They said after two days, without informing them, a few senior cops themselves performed the last rites of Rocky after buried him. “After our protest, an FIR got registered against the village Sarpanch along with his other accomplices, but a month has been passed and the police are failed to arrest the accused. Also, the name of the main murderer, SHO Manjeet Singh, was not mentioned in the FIR as he is a relative of the congress MLA. So, we have no hope of getting justice from Gurdaspur police as the police are under the control of a politician, who is pressurizing them. We want a fair CBI probe in this matter which we have demanded from the chief minister today,” said the victim’s mother Veena.
On the other side, Dhariwal SHO Manjeet Singh denied the allegations and said, “Actually, Rocky was a drug addict, and the villagers beat him on January 4. In fact, we had saved him from them and took him to a hospital for his treatment. After around two hours of treatment, the doctors declared him dead. The doctors’ report can clearly indicate that Rocky lost his life during the treatment and drug overdose was also the major cause of death,” said Manjeet Singh. He added that Rocky was declared Proclaimed Offender by the court and eight criminal cases were already registered against him.