2 Maharashtra cops 'beat driver to death over loud music'

SOLAPUR: In a custodial death case, the Madha police on Monday booked two of their own constables on charges of murder of a tractor driver on Sunday night. The case has been handed over to the criminal investigation department (CID) for further investigations.

Speaking to TOI, Solapur’s additional superintendent of police Milind Mohite said, “We are treating it as a custodial death case and have handed over the investigations to the CID. We are awaiting the post-mortem report to know the exact cause of death.”

Mohite said the tractor driver, Pradeep Kalyan Kute (28), was playing loud music while travelling in his vehicle around 8.30pm at Manegaon near Madha, around 65km from here, off the Mumbai-Hyderabad national highway. “The constables questioned Kute about the loud music and asked him to come to the police outpost. Kute later fell unconscious in the outpost and was taken to a private hospital in Madha, where the doctors declared him brought dead,” he said.

However, Kute’s relatives and local residents alleged that he died after he was thrashed severely by the constables at the outpost. They were also infuriated on learning that the case had been registered as an accidental death. They refused to accept the body from the hospital and also staged a dharna outside the Madha police station, demanding action against the constables.

As tension built at the police station, senior police officers from Solapur, including superintendent of police Manoj Patil, rushed to the spot. They pacified the crowd saying that the constables would be booked for murder and convinced them to accept the body.

Later, Kute’s body was handed over to his family after completing all legal formalities. It was taken to his native place at Songiri village in Osmanabad district for the last rites.

Police said Kute had come to Madha with his family during the sugarcane season to work as a tractor driver.