Days after the death of Darshan, allegedly due to custodial torture, his wife has said that she felt intimidated after the police made her travel to a secluded spot in Bengaluru on the pretext of “inquiry”, and offered “help” for her daughter if she withdrew the case.
Twenty-three-year-old Darshan, a Dalit resident of Sonnenahalli in Koramangala, died on November 26 under mysterious circumstances at Unity Social Service Rehab Centre, a privately run rehabilitation clinic in Nelamangala on the outskirts of Bengaluru.
Darshan’s mother Adilkashmi has alleged that the police tortured her son for several days, to the extent that he could not walk, while rights activists have alleged that the police had illegally detained Darshan as they had not provided any records to the family for his arrest.
Unnamed police officials quoted in the media have claimed that Darshan flashed a weapon at a local church and assaulted police personnel during detention. They also claimed that police had not registered a case against Darshan over the incident as the family requested leniency as he was inebriated.
Four police officials including the inspector of Viveknagar police station and a constable named Pavan, and the owner of Unity Social Service Rehab Centre, have since been booked for murder, wrongful confinement, committing an offence against an SC person that is punishable by a 10-year sentence under the IPC and under provisions of the Atrocity Act. The investigation of the case has been handed over to the CID.
Twenty-two-year-old Ashwini told TNM that two police officers, one in uniform and the other in plainclothes, claiming to be from the Viveknagar Police Station turned up at her house in Austin Town on the evening of November 29. They told her to book an auto and go to Ashoknagar Police Station for a “10-minute inquiry” at 8.30 pm.
Ashwini said that she left for the police station along with her grandmother in an autorickshaw and that the police followed them on their bike. On the way, they made the auto stop near an open ground near Garuda Mall saying that it would be difficult to talk at the Ashoknagar police station as there would be too many people.
“One by one, more cops came and there were around 10 people surrounding me and my grandmother. They kept saying that they could not bring my husband back, that they would do anything to help my daughter. Once they said, ‘You don’t know if you will be alive tomorrow, what will happen to your daughter’. I felt like they were blackmailing me.’
This went on for two hours and she was finally able to leave by saying that she had left her two-year-old daughter at home, Ashwini said. “I told them I didn’t want anything but justice for my husband. I want a judicial inquiry.”
An interim fact-finding report was released in Bengaluru by PUCL and the Association of Prisoners Families for Justice (APFJ) on Tuesday, December 2, based on the statement of Adilakshmi, Darshan’s mother.
According to Adilakshmi, two officials from the Viveknagar police station came to their house in Sonnenahalli around 1.30 am on November 13. The two officers began beating Darshan, who had been sitting outside his house.
One person was in plainclothes while another was in uniform. She later identified one of them as Pavan.
When Adilakshmi and her older son Ajith questioned the police, they claimed that he had threatened a Zomato delivery staffer with a weapon and had even shown it to the police. Despite their pleas, the police took him away on their bike.
Later that day, Adilakshmi went to the Viveknagar police station thrice, asking to see her son, but was turned away each time. She identified one of the officials as Pavan, who had come to her house. Pavan turned her away each time, Adilakshmi told the fact-finding team.
She alleged that the inspector told her that he would “book Darshan in a big case and send him to jail”, and asked her to leave when she went to the police station at around 6.30pm on November 13. She went back for the next two days, but was not allowed to see Darshan.
On November 16, Pavan called her and said that the inspector had agreed to send Darshan to a rehabilitation centre and that the family would have to pay Rs 7,500 per month.
“During that visit, Adilakshmi was allowed to see her son. He was crawling, unable to walk. He told his mother that he had been beaten and asked her to take him away from there,” advocate and PUCL Karnataka member Nelson P Raj, said while releasing the report.
Later that day, when the van from Unity Foundation Rehab Centre in Nelamangala arrived, Adilakshmi and the police had to support Darshan and take him to the van. The police had instructed Darshan to say that he fell down from his bike when the rehab centre staff asked him about his inability to walk.
For the next 10 days Adilakshmi called the rehab centre every day to check on Darshan’s health and each day she was told that he was getting better.
On November 26, her husband Gopi received a call from the centre telling him that Darshan had developed breathing problems and had died. The family went to the Viveknagar police station, where they were told to go to the rehab centre and said that they would come later.
Staff at the rehab centre did not give an explanation for Darshan’s death. Instead, they gave the family a google map location and told them to go there. The location turned out to be the Nelamangala government hospital, where doctors told him that Darshan was brought dead to the hospital and showed the family his body.
Adilakshmi said they saw bruises on Darshan’s chest, both his arms were swollen, there were marks suggesting assault on his back, his left leg and both feet were swollen, and there was a wound on his shin.
The family went back to Nelamangala police station, but were then directed to Madanayakanahalli police station who then registered an Unnatural Death Report (UDR). The body was then moved to Victoria Hospital where the post-mortem examination was done on November 27.
PUCL and APFJ have demanded a judicial inquiry into Darshan’s death. They have also demanded protection for Ashwini and her family from police intimidation.
They have also demanded the immediate arrest of the officers accused of torturing and killing Darshan, and their dismissal from service.
This reporting is made possible with support from Report for the World, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project.