LUCKNOW: Eight police officials, including the in-charge of the Ambedkarnagar SWAT team, were suspended after being booked for murder for their role in an alleged custodial death of a 37-year-old man from Azamgarh in UP.
The deceased, Ziyauddin, was allegedly picked up by the SWAT team when he had gone to meet his relatives. Ziyauddin’s family claimed he was tortured by policemen which led to his death. Police claimed Ziyauddin was wanted in a case of assault and robbery. The district administration has ordered an inquiry by a sub-divisional magistrate (SDM).
“The postmortem report was inconclusive about the cause of death. Viscera has been preserved and probe is under way. We have suspended all the eight policemen,” SP-Ambedkarnagar Alok Priyadarshi said.
‘We are planning to shift probe for transparency’
An FIR against the SWAT team in-charge Devendra Pal Singh and seven unidentified policemen, with charges of murder and kidnapping or abducting in order to murder, has been filed at Akbarpur police station.
“Ziyauddin left the house on Wednesday to meet relatives and was supposed to return on Thursday. When he did not return, we tried to look for him. Around 3am on Friday, his wife got a call saying her husband was picked up by SWAT for questioning and had suffered a heart attack,” Ziyauddin’s brother Shahabuddin said. “We informed our village head and after making calls to several police stations, we found that he was taken to Akbarpur. Around midnight, he fell ill and was taken to hospital,” he said, alleging that the district administration tried to hush up the matter.
Ziyauddin lived in a village in Azamgarh and is survived by his wife Fuzaila Bano (32), son Faizullah (10) and daughter Atoofa (7). IG (Ayodhya range) Sanjeev Gupta said, “We are planning to shift the investigation from Akbarpur police station for transparency. We will follow NHRC guidelines. Ziyauddin was wanted in a case of assault and robbery.”