Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday ordered a probe into the case in which a minor vegetable vendor was allegedly beaten up and sent to jail for refusing to give free vegetables to local policemen in Patna. The minor had been lodged in Patna’s Beur jail for last three months.
Taking cognisance of the case reported in local media, Mr. Nitish Kumar ordered an investigation into it by a higher rank police official and sought the report in two-days. The Patna zonal Inspector General of police Nayyar Husnain Khan too said the case was serious police would begin investigation. .
The incident happened in March this year when a 14-year old son of a vegetable vendor allegedly refused to give free vegetables to local policemen who were on patrol under Patrakar Nagar police station and he was later picked up by the cops and sent to Beur jail on March 19. Showing his son’s Aadhar card his father claimed he was 14 years old while, the police said he was 18 years and a member of the bike-lifting gang. After 24-hour,s the minor’s father was told by policemen that he was sent to jail along with two others Nitesh and Vishal Kumar as they were members of a bike-lifting gang. His father made several visits to the police station and took the case to the office of higher police officials but nothing happened.
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When he met his son in jail, the boy told him the whole story that he was picked up by the local police for refusing to give them free vegetables. . He also said that he was beaten up by the cops badly and forced to sign a blank sheet of paper. The boy also said he never knew those two persons arrested and sent to jail along with him.
His father, admitted that he had been obliging the policemen who demanded free vegetables but on that day his son had refused to give them. Later, the policemen came to his residence and picked up his son and sent him to jail, instead of remand home, on the charge of being a member of bike-lifter’s gang. When the ordeal of the family was reported in local media, the Chief Minister intervened and ordered an inquiry.