The Bombay High Court on Tuesday pulled up the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for not conducting the investigation of an alleged custodial death of a 24-year-old man in 2014 in “an impartial way.”
A Division Bench of Justices B.P. Dharmadhikari and S.S. Jadhav was hearing a plea filed by Leonard Valdaris, the father of the deceased, Agnelo, saying his son was arrested by the Wadala railway police station in April 2014 for allegedly snatching a gold chain. The police had said Valdaris was run over by a train while trying to escape, but his father claimed he died due to torture in police custody.
Advocate Payoshi Roy, appearing for Mr. Valdaris, informed the court that eight Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel have been booked under Section 377 (unnatural offences) along with Section 109 (punishment of abetment if the act is committed in consequence and where no express provision is made for its punishment) of the Indian Penal Code. However, they have not been charged with Section 302 (punishment for murder) as the CBI has found no material that states Valdaris was killed.
She said the CCTV camera image shows that Valdaris did not try to escape as the police said, and there is enough evidence to show that he died in police custody. The matter will be heard on November 21.
In 2017, a Division Bench had noted, “There is prima facie material against the police officials, which discloses charges of murder, culpable homicide and unnatural sex,” and that CBI has not invoked the proper charges.
The chargesheet filed by the agency only books police officers under charges that attract lesser punishment like criminal conspiracy and voluntarily causing hurt.
In 2016, the court had said, based on the postmortem report, position of the body in the spot, the panchnama and other witness statements it is difficult to accept the CBI’s contention that the deceased committed suicide or suffered accidental death.
