Amidst the thrashing of Rajan Khatri, the constable took a ‘break’ during which he sat on the boy’s chest and sipped water from a bottle, the victim’s family has alleged.
When the boy pleaded with him for a little water, the constable, Pramod, allegedly tried to thrust the entire plastic bottle into his mouth, almost suffocating him in the process, his brother Ravi said quoting his brother.
Rajan himself, in a purported statement to the police a day after the ‘assault’, mentioned the constable’s brutality. He said that Pramod repeatedly kicked him around even as he kept pleading that his family be called in there.
Ravi alleged that Pramod was drunk at the time of the incident.
“Even as Pramod was abusing me for questioning his brutality, he kept my brother pinned with his knees on his chest,” said Ravi. “Rajan’s body was swollen at several places,” he said.
Meanwhile, the victim’s family has alleged that Pramod and some other policemen had visited their home to threaten them into a compromise.
“Pramod returned the Rs. 2,500 he had earlier seized from Rajan and handed us an additional Rs. 7,500 towards his treatment.
The policemen assured us that they would take care of Rajan’s treatment expenses if we did not pursue any legal case against them,” said Rajan’s father Virender.
The policemen allegedly threatened to implicate the entire family in a fake currency racket if they did not compromise. “At one time, the constable got on to his knees in front of Rajan and I and begged for forgiveness,” Virender told The Hindu .
The family was also ‘forced’ to sign some papers. A senior police officer said it was a ‘compromise’ between the two parties before Rajan died. “None of the policemen cared to get my son treated. Now all I want is the constable punished,” said the father.
