Lucknow: The family of 34-year-old Furqan Ahmad, from UP’s Shamli whose body was “returned to his house minutes after he was picked up by cops from his place” on Sunday night, alleged on Monday that he died due to “police torture”. Ahmad, a father of five daughters who sold clothes in a cart, was found dead at Bidauli in Jhinjhana area.
Ahmad’s brother Salman said, “My brother was picked up by a police team led by Vinay Kumar, in-charge of Bidauli chowki. They came in a private car around 12.30am, and took him into custody. About 15 minutes later, the cops returned him. He had marks on his back and was unconscious. My sister-in-law was also physically assaulted during questioning.”
Refuting these allegations, SHO of Jhinjhana, Sudesh Kumar, said, “A team of cops went to arrest ‘Farukh’, a wanted suspect, in connection with a serious assault case registered at a local police station in 2016. When police were conducting a raid in the locality, Ahmad tried to flee his house, which raised suspicion among cops. Upon clarification, Ahmad was found not involved in the case and immediately let off.”
“Moments later, police were informed of Ahmad’s death via ‘Dial-112 helpline’,” said Santosh Kumar, Shamli ASP. Police arrived at the scene to initiate an investigation and they took the body for the postmortem.
Kumar added: “To investigate the family’s allegations, the postmortem will be videographed and conducted in the presence of a magistrate. The cause of his death will be clear once we get the postmortem report.”
