A death under suspicious circumstances — where a police complaint says the victim jumped from the fourth floor of a building and the post-mortem reports do not show any injury — came to light at the monthly Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe meet held at the Mangalore City Police Commissioner’s Office here on Sunday.
According to Dalit rights activist S.P. Anand, Basavaraj, working for a construction company, had been admitted to A.J. Shetty Hospital by his supervisor after he had fallen ill on October 4. Two days later, his family was informed that he had died after “jumping off the fourth floor of the hospital”. The complaint, filed by the supervisor Vasanth, states that Basavaraj was a “heavy drinker” and “depressed”.
However, Mr. Anand claimed that the post-mortem revealed that the body did not have injuries, which does not substantiate the complaint.
“Basavaraju was working in Kinnigoli at the time. For a simple fever, why would someone come all the way to a hospital near Kadri. This is suspicious,” he said.
Investigation
Mangalore East police, who have registered the case said the investigation was in the process. Further, Mr. Anand complained that the officials at Pandeshwar Women’s Police Station were “rude” and sometimes it seemed like they were “torturing” the complainant.
“The Assistant Sub-Inspectors at the Police station would rather threaten you to make a compromise than lodge the complaint and take action,” he said.
Manish Kharbikar, Mangalore Police Commissioner, asked Mr. Anand to provide specific details and assured him that action would be taken if any wrongdoing on the part of the ASIs was found.
