A 31-year-old man Alakunta Sampath died in police custody in Telangana’s Nizamabad district on Thursday, March 13, sparking outrage and allegations of custodial torture. The deceased’s family alleged that Sampath was subjected to severe police brutality just hours before his death. However, police have downplayed the death claiming that lately many people are succumbing to heart attacks. A judicial inquiry has been ordered into the incident.
Alleging custodial torture, Sampath’s brother said that when he met him briefly on the evening of March 13, Sampath claimed that the police had assaulted him with a lathi on his feet. “He fell on me, saying they were hitting him badly and he couldn’t take it. He was struggling to walk,” his brother said.
Sampath, who belonged to the Backward Class Vaddera community, ran a job consultancy firm, Srirama International Manpower Consultancy, in Jagtial, Peddapalli district. His firm recently came under scrutiny after several individuals, who were sent to Laos and coerced into cybercrime, returned to India and filed complaints against him and others. As a result, Sampath was booked for extortion, trafficking, and related charges on March 3.
Subsequently, Sampath and his co-accused, Chiranjeevi, were sent to judicial remand on March 4. Police were granted custody from March 12 to March 15 morning. On March 13 afternoon, from around 3.30 pm to 6.30 pm, Sampath was taken to his office in Jagtial for seizing incriminating material, according to the FIR.
As per the police version, he was brought back to the Nizamabad Cyber Crime Police Station around 9.45 pm along with his co-accused, and around 10.10 pm, he started complaining of pain in his left hand. He was taken to the Nizamabad Government General Hospital (GGH) for treatment, where he seemed to have “got fits” or a seizure, collapsed, and passed away, despite doctors performing CPR and trying to revive him, the FIR said.
“The duty doctors informed that Alakunta Sampath got a massive heart attack,” the FIR said, adding that “recently young persons are also getting massive heart attacks.”
His family, however, has alleged custodial torture, and staged protests at the Nizamabad GGH demanding answers from the police.
According to Sampath’s mother who met him briefly on March 13 at noon, Sampath disclosed that he was assaulted by the police.
“He said the police beat him up and tortured him. He hugged me and said he didn’t know what else they would do to him after leaving.”
Sampath’s wife said that he cried in front of her on March 13. “He asked us to take care, saying he didn’t know what the police would do to him after taking him back. He said they might hit him more,” she said.
Nizamabad Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Raja Venkat Reddy told the media that there will be a judicial inquiry into Sampath’s custodial death. “He appeared fine on the way to the hospital, but while talking to the doctor, he collapsed. CPR was performed but it didn’t help… Lately, such instances have gone up among youth too, at gyms etc.,” he said.