Kasganj custodial death case: HC says exhume body, get second post mortem at AIIMS in Delhi

The police had claimed Altaf hanged himself with a drawstring from the hood of his jacket, using a water pipe in a toilet at the station that is a couple of feet from the ground.

A Bench of Justices Anjani Kumar Mishra and Deepak Verma, in an order on Thursday, said the second post-mortem examination shall be conducted by a team of doctors constituted by the Director of AIIMS.

“We therefore, direct that the body of the deceased, Altaf shall be exhumed forthwith in the presence of Senior Superintendent of Police / Superintendent of Police, Kasganj. The body after it has been exhumed shall be sealed and immediately transported to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, where a post-mortem examination of the exhumed body shall be conducted in presence of a team of doctors to be constituted by the Director of All India Medical Sciences, Delhi,” said the court.

The water pipe from which police said Altaf hanged self.

A week before his body was found, Altaf was picked up for questioning on a complaint by a girl’s family, who accused him of kidnapping her. He was charged under Sections 363 (Kidnapping) and 366 (Kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

In his complaint, based on which Altaf was picked up, the father of the girl had alleged his daughter was a minor, but police had later found that she was 19 years old. The police had earlier said the couple were in a relationship, but had fallen out. “Altaf told us they had been in a relationship,” Kasganj SP Botre Rohan Pramod had said.

A departmental inquiry and a magisterial probe into the custodial death are being conducted simultaneously.

The court passed an order on a petition filed by Chand Miyan, father of Altaf, who prayed that “he is not satisfied with the post-mortem that was conducted after his son died in police custody”.

The petitioner — represented by lawyers Ali Qambar Zaidi, Mohammad Danish and Mohd Kumail Haider — had sought that the body of the deceased be exhumed and that a fresh post-mortem be conducted at AIIMS in New Delhi. In his petition, the father “insisted on the post-mortem being conducted outside the State of Uttar Pradesh because of the alleged involvement” of UP police.

Additional Advocate General Manish Goel, representing the state, did not object to this plea.

The court also directed officials to ensure that “the entire process of unsealing and post-mortem and the subsequent sealing if any of the body, shall be videographed”.

“High resolution still photographs of the body at various stages of the examination shall also be taken and preserved. The post-mortem report, the video footage and photograph shall be prepared in three copies,” the court said.

The court ordered that one copy of the post-mortem report, footage and photographs should be submitted to it, while one copy each shall be placed on record of the judicial and magisterial inquiries, which are pending.

The court said the “entire exercise should be completed within a period of 10 days” from the passing of the order.

While listing the matter after four weeks, the court said it is passing the order “because it is the case of the petitioner based upon photographs brought on record, wherein the deceased, Altaf is shown to have hung himself from a water pipe, which was installed only three feet above the ground of the toilet”.

While the petitioner prayed that the case be transferred to the CBI, the court did not pass an order on this as a judicial and magisterial inquiry is pending in the matter.

The court was told that under the judicial inquiry, 7 of the 36 witnesses have been examined and that two out of the remaining witnesses were to be examined on Thursday.