Lawyer Vinay Nair, who has been representing Vijay’s family, said, “We were not aware that the five policemen have been reinstated. (File)

Family members of Sion resident Vijay Singh, who died of alleged police torture at the Wadala TT police station last October, moved the Bombay High Court on Friday seeking an urgent hearing into the issue of five policemen – suspended in the aftermath of Vijay’s death – being reinstated in the force in May.

On Friday, The Indian Express had reported that even as a Crime Branch probe is underway into the incident, the five policemen were reinstated citing manpower crunch at the police station due to Covid-19 pandemic. Even in June, 18 police personnel facing suspension had been reinstated across Mumbai police stations to tackle the rising challenges.

Lawyer Vinay Nair, who has been representing Vijay’s family, said, “We were not aware that the five policemen have been reinstated. While earlier we were to wait for the next hearing scheduled on July 27, we have now sought an urgent hearing of the HC. We hope the matter will be heard next week since it is a case of custodial death.”

Nair added that it has been more than eight months and the police have not yet given the postmortem report to the family. “While the final reason behind the death has been mentioned in the death certificate, it does not specify if there were any injury marks on the body like a postmortem report would.”

A police officer, however, claimed that there is not much difference between the postmortem report and the final cause of death mentioned in the death certificate.

Vijay had died at the Wadala TT police station on October 27. According to the police, he, alongwith his two friends, were taken to the police station following their tiff with a couple near his residence when he was parking his motorcycle at night. Vijay was kept in the lock-up for some time, following which he complained of chest pain. He went on to collapse at the police station and was rushed to Sion hospital, where he was declared brought dead.

Following this, an SIT headed by the additional commissioner of police (Crime) was set up to probe the matter.

“We have the postmortem reports from both JJ and KEM hospitals. While the JJ hospital postmortem report mentions the cause of death as ‘myocardial infraction’, the KEM hospital reports says he died due to ‘acute coronary insufficiency precipitated by sudden panic attack’. Both reports have been sent to JJ hospital to get an understanding on the final cause of death,” an officer said.

The officer added that in the light of the pandemic, there was a delay in getting the final report from JJ hospital. “Once we get the report, the final inquiry report will be submitted.”