Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath Monday met the family members of trader Mohit Pandey who died in police custody due to alleged assault and announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh for them, officials said. The government will also take care of the education expenses of the children of the deceased, they said.
Pandey (30) died on Saturday after being allegedly beaten by police personnel following his arrest in connection with a case, according to his family. A resident of Jainabad in the Chinhat area of Lucknow, Pandey died at a hospital. His family members have claimed that police brutality was the cause of his death, police said.
The incident has triggered a major political furore, with the Samajwadi Party, the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party slamming the BJP government.
According to the police, Pandey was rushed to a community health centre after he became unwell at the police station. From there he was referred to a bigger facility where he died, they said.
However, Shobharam, the victim's brother who claimed that he was also briefly held in custody, alleged that the police thrashed Pandey "mercilessly" in front of him and sent him to the hospital only after he died.
A CCTV clip surfaced on the Internet on Sunday, purportedly showing Pandey lying inside the lockup. The family members of the deceased accused the police of deliberately leaking only a small portion of the footage to save their back, claiming that Pandey was beaten to death.
A detailed post-mortem report is awaited.
Following an uproar, the authorities Sunday ordered an FIR against the police station's personnel on charges of murder and criminal conspiracy. The in-charge of the police station, among those booked, has been suspended.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said the term "police custody" should be changed to "torture house", while Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra alleged the BJP has "established such a jungle raj in the state where police have become synonymous with brutality".
BSP chief Mayawati termed the incident "highly condemnable" and said the government must take effective steps to provide justice to the victim's family.
Pandey's is the second case of alleged police custody death in Lucknow this month. On October 11, a Dalit youth Aman Gautam, a resident of Vikas Nagar, died in police custody. Gautam's death too had triggered a political uproar.