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24 years after a man died in police custody, retired inspector sentenced to 10 years in jail | Lucknow News
A Mathura court has sentenced a retired police inspector to 10 years of imprisonment in a 24-year-old custodial death case. Four other accused police personnel, all retired now, were acquitted due to insufficient evidence. The court has also imposed a fine of Rs 1.21 lakh on the convicted former inspector, Sunil Kumar Sharma.
“The court held Sunil Kumar guilty, now 65, for causing death by negligence (IPC sections 304-A), causing disappearance of evidence and wrongful confinement. He has been taken into custody and sent to jail,” said government counsel (Mathura) Hemendra Bharadwaj, adding that 22 prosecution witnesses were examined by the court.
The case dates to June 6, 2000, when Sunil Kumar Sharma was station house officer of Narauli police station in Mathura district. It has been alleged that Sharma, who was suspended following the murder of a school principal, was responsible for the death of 26-year-old Vijay Kumar, the school cook, who was picked by the police for questioning.
Despite being under suspension, Sharma allegedly took Vijay to the Reserve Police Line for questioning. Vijay was later found dead. His body was found hanging in the washroom of the police line.
The incident sparked outrage, and an FIR was lodged against Sharma and four other police personnel, including a sub-inspector and three constables. The investigation, initially handled by the local police, was later transferred to the UP Police’s Crime Branch (CID) due to concerns about impartiality.
In its chargesheet, the CB-CID named 11 police personnel – Sharma, Inspector Dharamveer who had replaced Sharma after the latter’s suspension, and 9 others. Dharamveer passed away during the pendency of the trial. All the accused had secured bail and remained out on court orders. However, due to a lack of progress in the trial against the five accused, their files were separated from the main trial. The trial of the remaining five is ongoing.
In the main case related to the principal’s murder, the prosecution was unable to trace the culprits and a closure report was filed, said the government counsel.