A TRS activist accused of involvement in the robbery of gold and cash from the Primacy Agricultural Cooperative Society (PACS) in Dharmapuri temple town of Karimnagar district was found dead under mysterious circumstances at Korutla police station on Sunday night.
Superintendent of Police V Shiva Kumar told The Hindu on Monday that the accused, Chandraiah alias Chandu (23), who was working as a driver of Dharmapuri PACS chairman and TRS leader Rajender was picked up by Dharmapuri police for investigation into the PACS theft case on Saturday.
After examination, the accused confessed to committing the offence and about 25 grams of gold were recovered from his possession. He further disclosed the names of two other suspects from Buggaram and Devampet villages of Dharmapuri mandal.
Later, the police shifted him to Korutla police station for investigation on Sunday night. Following his arrest, Chandraiah jumped from the second floor of the police station leading to serious head injuries. He was immediately shifted to a private hospital and later to Karimnagar hospital for treatment. However, he succumbed to the injuries, Mr. Shiva Kumar said.
The SP said that they had registered a case against the accused under the IPC 309 for trying to escape from police custody. He also said that they had appointed Sircilla DSP D Narsaiah as investigation officer to probe the issue.
Negligence on the part of police personnel would be dealt with very seriously. An inquest would be conducted by the judicial first class magistrate and a team of doctors would conduct the post-mortem which would be video-graphed as per national human rights commission guidelines, he added.
TRS leaders alleged that it was a lock up death and demanded stern action against the police personnel. They wanted to know why the accused, who was arrested by Dharmapuri police station personnel, was shifted to Korutla police station.
TRS activists arrived in large numbers at the Karimnagar headquarters hospital where the body of the accused was kept for post-mortem. The police had also made elaborate arrangements by deploying additional police forces to prevent any toward incident.
