A 37-year-old scrap dealer, who was arrested by the Koramangala police on theft charges more than 10 days ago, died under mysterious circumstances at the central prison in Parappana Agrahara on Sunday.
Mubarak Pasha, a resident of L.R. Nagar, was arrested from his residence by the Koramangala police on theft charges on August 19. Though his family managed to get him bail on Saturday, he could not be released. Mubarak was to have been released on Sunday.
The family claimed that the Koramangala police had denied having arrested Mubarak, a day after he had been picked up. Only after someone known to the family noticed Mubarak in police custody that the police showed his arrest and produced him in court on August 27. The court had remanded him in judicial custody.
Reshma Pasha, wife of Mubarak, on Sunday alleged that the police picked up Mubarak on charges of robbing a gold chain. “It was my chain that Mubarak had pawned to get money for an emergency. He was picked up based on this.”
Bail“We even managed to obtain bail from the court and rushed to the jail on Saturday evening to secure his release. However, after waiting till 11.30 p.m. the family was sent back by the authorities asking them to come on Sunday,” Munna, a friend of Mubarak, told The Hindu.
However, on Sunday morning the family received a jolt when they received a call from the central jail informing that Mubarak had been admitted to Victoria Hospital following health complications.
The family rushed to the hospital and found Mubarak’s body in the mortuary.
While the prison authorities claimed that Mubarak died due to cardiac arrest, the Victoria Hospital police have taken it as a case of unnatural death and have sought magisterial inquest.
Refuting the allegation of illegal detention, Assistant Commissioner of Police ( Madiwala Subdivision) Shanth Kumar said that deceased was a habitual offender and had several chain-snatching cases pending against him.
“We arrested him on a robbery case and recovered the gold chain before he was remanded in judicial custody. He was wanted in another case by the City Market police and before they could secure his custody, he died of cardiac arrest in the prison,” he said.
Deputy Inspector-General of Police (Prisons), V.S. Raja said that the department was waiting for the inquest report to ascertain the cause of death, which would be sent to National Human Rights Commission.
