New Delhi: Four months after 54 year-old Dalbir Singh died allegedly after jumping from the second floor of the Naraina Police Station, an FIR has been registered in connection with the mysterious custodial death.
The FIR has been filed based on an inquest proceeding report into the custodial death and on the orders of a Delhi court.
Dalbir was arrested on charges of collecting medicines in the dispensary of the hospital using a forged prescription slip from Army Base hospital in Delhi Cantonment.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, West district, Vijay Kumar, said,"The FIR has been registered under section 304 (Culpable Homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code. The District Investigation Unit is probing the matter."
According to the inquiry report, accessed by CNN-News 18, Dalbir Singh after being arrested was produced before a court where he was sent to one day police custody. He was taken straight to the police station, instead of first being taken to a hospital for medical examination.
The report also said that there were discrepancies in the statements of the witnesses. The witnesses, who were the police personnel present at the police station, could not disclose the exact facts leading to the death of Dalbir.
Dalbir's son was outside the police station at the time of his death, but wasn’t informed till 9:30 PM, over three hours after the incident.
"There was also contradiction in the Roznamcha register (police diary). There is no material coming forth to show that the death of Dalbir was natural and no untoward incident had taken place. The death was surrounded by suspicious circumstances and the truth can only be ascertained after proper investigation," said the inquest report.
Police initially said Dalbir jumped down from the second floor. The preliminary inquiry, however, had indicated that he did not commit suicide but apparently fell down while attempting to escape from the police custody.
However, Dalbir's family had junked the suicide and escape attempt theories of the police and alleged that he was tortured and then forcefully pushed down from second floor of the police station.
Dalbir's son alleged that his father was murdered. "Just before his death, I got a call from my father and he said that the police officers who took him into custody were demanding money for his release," said Dalbir's son Vijay Kumar, refuting the police version of Dalbir’s death..
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