7 Rajasthan Cops Suspended As Lawyer’s Family Blames Them For His Suicide

Sriganganagar SP Anand Sharma said the decision was taken late Tuesday night.

Jaipur:

Seven police personnel including two Inspectors were suspended after the family members of a lawyer, who died by suicide, blamed the policemen of harassing him in Rajasthan’s Sriganganagar district, officials said on Wednesday.

Sriganganagar SP Anand Sharma said the decision was taken late Tuesday night. The body of the lawyer will be handed over to the family members after post-mortem on Wednesday.

Advocate Vijay Singh Jhorad hanged himself from an iron staircase in his house on Monday. His family members alleged that he was being tortured by police for running an “anti-drug movement”. They refused to take the body and held a demonstration in Gharsana area in the district. Advocates and local BJP leaders also mounted pressure on the police on Tuesday.

“Seven policemen have been suspended last night after which the family members have agreed to accept the body,” SP Sharma said on Wednesday.

The suspended policemen include Gharsana Station House Officer (SHO) and inspector Madan Lal, Inspector Surendra Singh, two sub-inspectors (SI), one assistant SI, one head constable and one constable.

Barring Singh, all other policemen were from Gharsana police station. Surendra Singh is from another police station, the SP said.

He said Vijay Singh had taken three youths to Gharsana police station in April and accused them of being drug peddlers. No drugs were recovered from them but they were arrested under section 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and later released.

The youths alleged that the advocate and others thrashed them and extorted Rs 8,000 through a UPI application. A video showing the youths being thrashed had also surfaced online.

Subsequently, the advocate and others reached the police station and again demanded the arrest of the youths and created ruckus. Police had to use mild force to disperse the mob in which Vijay Singh was injured on April 18, the SP said.

Vijay Singh registered an FIR against the policemen for thrashing him while the three youths lodged a case against the SHO under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The advocate allegedly died by suicide on Monday. However, no suicide note was recovered. His family members alleged that he was under stress as policemen were harassing him repeatedly after the case was registered against them in April.

The SP said the cases will be investigated by the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Rajasthan Police.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)