Multiple blasts hit Mumbai
He died of brain haemorrhage: provisional post-mortem report
Maharashtra's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) will probe the death of Fayaz Usmani (35) after he was taken by the police for questioning in connection with Wednesday's blasts here.
The Director-General of Police ordered the CID probe after Fayaz's family members suspected foul play in the death. “A CID inquiry has been ordered,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Nisar Tamboli told The Hindu.
A provisional post-mortem report came late on Sunday night. “Prima facie it appears to be a natural death. We have still preserved the viscera and sent it to the laboratory for testing,” Dr. Tatyarao Lahane, Dean of J J Hospital, where the post-mortem was conducted, said.
Fayaz was called for questioning by the Crime Branch on Saturday afternoon. He complained of stomach ache and vomiting within 20 minutes of questioning, the police said. He was taken to the Lokmanya Tilak Hospital and a CT scan report said he had suffered massive brain haemorrhage. He died around 1 a.m. on Sunday.
“According to the post mortem, he suffered from cardiac infarction and brain haemorrhage. This means he suffered from a heart attack. A 90-100 gms blood clot was found in his brain. No marks of injury were found on his body,” Dr. Lahane said. Fayaz's heart has been kept for investigation, official sources said.
Fayaz was the elder brother of 2008 Ahmedabad blast suspect Afzal Usmani, who is now under arrest.
Dr. Randhir Singh, who treated Fayaz told The Hindu, “The police brought him in an unconscious state at 5 p.m. from the Shatabdi Hospital in Govandi. His blood pressure was 225/180, which is very high. We immediately admitted him to the ICU. A CT scan showed massive brain haemorrhage due to hypertension. It is natural death. We did not find any torture marks on the body. There were no external injuries or internal injuries due to external hit.”
Mr. Tamboli said, “He was called for questioning on Saturday afternoon. He came to the Crime Branch. He cooperated with the investigation, but started feeling uncomfortable within 20 minutes. He complained of stomach ache and vomited. We immediately took him to hospital. We later came to know that he suffered from hypertension and had not taken his medication for two-three days.”
But the family members claimed that he did not suffer from any health problem.
Fayaz's son Azeem Usmani told The Hindu, “He was perfectly fine when he left home. Policemen in plainclothes came and took him for interrogation. They said they were from the Crime Branch Unit 6. They took him at 3 p.m. yesterday [Saturday]. But a policeman came some time later to tell us that he was suffering from stomach ache and vomiting, and was taken to hospital. When we went and saw him, his hands were shaking. Doctors told us that he suffered from brain haemorrhage. Late in the night, they said, he was no more.”
He said: “It has happened because of the police. He had gone alone with the police. There was no one else. How will we know what happened? It must have happened because of torture. He looked fine when he left home.” The police recorded the statement of the family members.
According to informed sources, a CID team interrogated some officials of the Crime Branch Unit 6 for nearly two hours on Sunday.
Keywords: Mumbai blasts, Maharashtra DGP, CID inquiry, Faiz Usmani death
Comments:
It is not very far fetched for a person to get the third degree (tortured) treatment once he is hauled in to the police station. Even minor infractions can get you tortured. I have known of an innocent person who was beaten black and blue by means of lathis and shoes by the Mumbai police just because he happened to be a witness to some fight amongst the goondas. Considering the fact that this person was a brother to a suspect in the blasts in Mumbai, I believe he was tortured to death. This is the state of affairs in this land of Ahimsa.
If there is no mark of torture on his body it seems natural caused by brain ham. but now we should keep moving the circle of investigation...
An apparently innocent man killed by aggressive police behavior. The family is shattered, who is going to provide for them. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims have been relegated to extreme poverty because their bread earners have been killed or incarcerated under suspicion. It is indeed a very difficult for Indian Muslim Youth to prosper. Police is India is communal as well.
Torture is not only physical but also, if not often, psychological. That no marks were found on the body might rule out beatings, but not the possibility of severe psychological abuse (for example, repeated threats that something very bad could happen to his family if he did not 'cooperate', putting a gun to his head and threatening to pull the trigger, etc). The CID team investigating this should look carefully into whether conditions leading to severe mental stress were created. It is of utmost importance that the state does not break the law simply to punish those it suspects of breaking the law.
1) It is a case of custodial death. 2) The arresting police did not issue 'Memo of Arrest' 3) The arresting police were in plain cloth, which are against the judgment of Supreme Court (D K Basu - AIR 1997 SC 610) 4) In each case of custodial death, that should be inquired by the Judicial Magistrate as per Sec. 176(1)(A) of Cr.P.C. What happened in this case? 5) Everybody knows that there are several types of physical & mental torture happened in various police stations, where there will be no apparent injury marks seen in the body of the victim. 6) And, lastly, many people of India knows what type of interrogation by police is !
Vicious post-blast pattern in play. Youth in the local Muslim community are invariably hauled in, sometimes arbitrarily. Scores of youth in Hyderabad suffered arrest and torture after the Mecca Masjid blast.