The Bengaluru police have arrested six persons after the post-mortem report indicated that a migrant worker, who was found dead on September 24, had died of injuries inflicted in a mob attack the previous night. On the night of September 23, the police had found the unidentified body of the deceased on the roadside in KR Puram after an angry mob reportedly attacked him on suspicion of being a child-lifter or a kidnapper.
DCP (Whitefield) S Girish said that initially a case under CrPC 174 (C) was filed as there were no major injuries on the unidentified body. However, the police later found CCTV footage which showed that the victim had been assaulted by a group of six people. After the post-mortem report indicated that he had died due to injuries resulting from the assault, the police registered a case under section 302 (murder) of the IPC againt the six people including Srini and Yaseen. The man was later identified as a migrant worker from Jharkhand called Sanjay Tudu, who was working as a mason in the city.
Investigations by the police revealed that Sanjay had been wandering around in the area in an inebriated state and had entered a house and tried to drag a child from the house. The child’s father caught him and beat him up and sent him away. Soon, a group of six to seven people surrounded him and severely assaulted him accusing him of being a child kidnapper, while others looked on. The Ramamurthynagar police were later called to the spot and they took Sanjay to the police station, but he refused to lodge a complaint and left.
The police statement in the case comes amid allegations that the migrant worker died in custody. An activist based in the city, Paramesh V, has written to the Karnataka High Court alleging it was a case of custodial death pointing to CCTV footage showing the deceased being taken to the police station. However, police officials denied that he was assaulted in the police station and said that the worker was in the police station for only four minutes during which time he refused to file a complaint against the men who assaulted him.
DCP (East) Bheemashankar S Guled said the victim was drunk but conscious and alert when he was brought to the police station and he left after refusing to lodge a complaint against his attackers. “We have already gone through the CCTV footage at the police station and the entire four minutes of his presence in the police station is recorded. There is no question of police assault,” he said. The DCP also said that their call records showed the caller clearly informing them that the victim was assaulted by a mob in Dargah Mohalla
They said it took them almost eight days to identify the body after which his family in Jharkhand was intimated. His body was handed to his family after the post-mortem was conducted on October 3. The report, which was received on Thursday, indicated that he had been assaulted and suffered several injuries, the police said.
In May 2018, a man was lynched in Chamarajpet in the city over rumours which spread on WhatsApp that there was a child kidnapper in the area. Similarly, a techie from Hyderabad was killed in Bidar in Karnataka in July 2018.