Mumbai News

Mumbai: 4 years after teen died following custodial interrogation, 8 police officials face action – The Indian Express

Eight police personnel, including a senior inspector of Mumbai Police, have been penalised and their increment suspended for three years following a departmental inquiry. According to police, the departmental inquiry was set up after these officials, who were posted at the Dharavi police station in 2018, detained a 17-year-old boy for questioning in a theft case.

Six days after he was released, the minor succumbed to illness.

According to family members of the deceased, Sachin Jaiswar was illegally picked up from their home in Dharavi on July 13, 2018.

“We were told that Sachin is a suspect in a phone theft case,” said his brother Sunil, adding, “At the time, when he was taken to the police station, Sachin was healthy and fit. But he was brutally assaulted at the police station due to which he developed some illness the next day. He was initially sent home after medication but after his condition worsened, he was admitted to the hospital and six days later, on July 21, he died during treatment.”

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The family members were told that Sunil had died due to leptospirosis. As the family sensed foul play, they complained against the police officials concerned and refused to take the body.

The body was lying at JJ Hospital till the Bombay High Court intervened in April 2021, after which the family took his body and conducted the final rites.

Meanwhile, the departmental inquiry revealed that these eight police personnel, identified as Senior Inspector Mohan Patil, Assistant Police Inspector Anant Ahire, Assistant Inspector Amol Mali, Sub-inspector Sharad Sable, Assistant Police Sub-inspector Ramesh Surve, and constables Kiran Marate, Bhatu Mahajan and Sanosh Vareek, were at fault, after which they were penalised.

The department has declared that their annual increment will be stopped for three years.

However, Sunil said, “We had demanded that the police personnel either be suspended or an FIR registered against them. We won’t get justice with this kind of punishment.”

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/mumbai-4-years-after-teen-died-following-custodial-interrogation-8-police-officials-face-action-7977834/