Unidentified policemen have been booked and two officers suspended after a 24-year-old man, detained over his alleged involvement in the abduction of a minor girl, allegedly attempted suicide inside a police station in Uttar Pradesh’s Kasganj district, the police said.
The girl, who had gone missing near her house on February 2, had been found two days later.
The man, however, was not released from detention.
Police said he tried to hang himself from a ventilator in the washroom of the police station. He was taken to a hospital in Aligarh where doctors said his condition was critical.
The incident sparked protests by the man’s family and locals outside the police station.
The protesters blocked the Etah-Kasganj road, pelted stones at the station, prompting police to disperse them using force. Normalcy was restored after a senior police officer arrived on the scene, assuring strict action and updating the protesters on the man’s treatment.
The man is a Dalit labourer. The girl’s family members, too, are Dalit labourers.
The man’s family claimed he had been held by police since February 3 on dubious grounds.
An FIR has been filed against unidentified policemen and two relatives of the girl.
Among the IPC Sections invoked were 343 (wrongful confinement for three or more days) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt). The case was filed by the man’s father. No arrest has been made.
Kasganj Superintendent of Police (SP), Aparna Rajat Kaushik, has suspended the Station House Officer of police station, Yatendra Pratap Singh, and the Investigation Officer of the abduction case, Sub-Inspector Gaya Prasad Singh.
Kasganj Additional Superintendent of Police, Jitendra Kumar Dubey, has been asked to conduct a thorough inquiry into the incident, the SP said.
Kaushik added the inquiry would also look into how the girl was found and why the man was detained at the police station.
Police force was deployed in the village to maintain peace.
