The family of Jai Prakash, a cook, who was beaten up by a local goon earlier this month, has on Wednesday accused the police of trying to shield the accused and not arresting him, a day after Jai succumbed to his injuries at a private hospital here.
Accusing the police of being hands-in-glove with accused Happy, the deceased’s wife Sanjana, who teaches at a school for underprivileged children, at Jharsa, said the police appeared to be siding with the accused since the day of the attack.
‘Cops let off accused’
“My husband’s friend was a witness to the attack and had informed us about it. Before taking my husband to the hospital, he [the friend] had tied up Happy and left him at the spot with two people as guard. We then took Happy to the police, but he was let off in a few minutes,” said Ms. Sanjana, who has a ten-month-old son from the marriage.
She also accused the police of registering the case against Happy under lenient sections initially and not invoking the attempt-to-murder charge.
Ms. Sanjana’s brother Rakesh Kumar, the complainant in the case, claimed that even after the doctors said his brother-in-law had bleak chances of survival, the police did not invoke the attempt-to-murder charge.
“At least, the police should have gone by the opinion of the doctor,” he said.
‘Family threatened’
Mr. Kumar also claimed that the accused continued to roam freely for several days after the attack on February 11, also alleging that his henchmen had even come to threaten the family.
He also said that Happy might have fled after Jai was declared dead and the charge of murder was invoked against him on Tuesday.
Happy had allegedly misbehaved with Ms. Sanjana a year ago, following which Jai had asked him to stay from his wife. The two had also got involved in a brawl over the matter.
Jai, who worked at Sector 31, was returning from work around 4 p.m. on the day of the incident.
He had stopped near his house to attend a phone call, when Happy hit him repeatedly on the head with a wooden stick.
Station House Officer, Sadar, Dalbir Singh, said that the attempt-to-murder charge was added to the FIR two days after the attack based on the opinion of the doctor.
“Happy was beaten up by the locals and was admitted to a hospital. He will be arrested soon,” Mr. Singh also said.