Custodial death: No need to monitor probe, says HC

The Gujarat High Court on Monday disposed of a petition filed in the case of alleged custodial death of a 32-year-old man of the Patel community during the reservation stir, saying there was no need for the court to monitor the case when CID has taken over probe into it.

Justice JB Pardiwala disposed of the petition filed by Prabhaben, mother of Swetang Patel, who died allegedly in custody after being caught by the police during the quota violence, while giving direction to the state Criminal Investigation Department (CID) that it should carry out a thorough investigation in the case. 

The court said there was no need for it to monitor the investigation that was being carried out by CID. Observing that prima facie it was a case of homicide, the HC had last week directed the administration to file an FIR and also ordered a CID probe into <g data-gr-id="28">Swetang’s</g> death.

On Monday, the state submitted before the HC that the probe was handed over to CID and an FIR has also been registered in the case. Government pleader Mitesh Amin informed the court that the police has recorded statements of <g data-gr-id="23">Swetang’s</g> mother and sister and investigation <g data-gr-id="30">has</g> begun. 

Advocate Tarak Damani, appearing for <g data-gr-id="26">Swetang’s</g> mother, submitted that there were some lacunae in the FIR. The HC said if the complainant finds any lacunae at any stage, the court can be approached. The court also ordered the police to hand over the postmortem reports to the complainant. Earlier, the court had directed the police to carry out <g data-gr-id="27">Swetang’s</g> second autopsy.

In her plea, <g data-gr-id="21">Swetang’s</g> mother demanded setting up of an SIT to investigate the case. Prabhaben had alleged that her son was beaten up by the police, following which he succumbed to the injuries. She had said that her son was in the house around 10.30pm  on August 25 when <g data-gr-id="24">a cops</g> forcibly took away <g data-gr-id="22">Swetang</g> and four others who were sleeping.