Vendor's body was found 5km away from police station, say sources, even as officers claim he fell to his death from the terrace
Several inconsistencies have been revealed in the FIR filed by the police in the suspected custodial death of street vendor Sompal, 24. The police, who have claimed that Sompal fell off the police station terrace while trying to escape, have no account of the two days following December 28, when the incident reportedly took place.
According to sources, Sompal was brought for questioning to the Adarsh Nagar police station in north-west Delhi at 7pm on December 28. Around 11.30pm on the same day, a passerby informed the police about a body lying nearly 5km from the police station.
"A man was found lying on his stomach behind the Majlis Park Metro station near the Shah Alam Bandh Road," the FIR has stated. The body was then taken to the Babu Jagjivan Ram Memorial Hospital, where it was declared unidentified and kept in the mortuary.
It was only two days later, on December 30, that the Investigating Officer (IO) identified the body as that of Sompal, that too after he saw his name in the Daily Diary (DD) 54B at the station. The police then claimed that Sompal fell off the police station building while trying to escape.
Sources have questioned that how come the body kept lying in the mortuary for two days but SHO Sanjay Kumar could not identify it. "There is no clarification in the FIR regarding how the body reached near the Metro station, 5km away from the police station. The SHO and the other accused officers must have taken the body there to dump it," they added.
Meanwhile, Sompal's family has alleged that the police delayed the identification to cover up the "cold-blooded murder". "There was no urgency to inform us. As per the FIR, he was identified on December 30. We were informed only on January 1," said Suresh Kumar, Sompal's uncle. "We thought he had gone to the Azadpur Mandi to sleep. Later, the police called us and asked us to identify the body. We were not even told what exactly happened to him," he added.
Sompal's elder brother Bunty said when he saw the body, the head was smashed and the face had several bruises. The family also claimed that the cops first told them that the body was found on a road and that Sompal had been murdered.
They further said that the fact that according to the cops, he fell off the terrace, but the body was found nearly 5km away, exposes the loophole in cops' version. There is no mention in the FIR that the police tried to trace Sompal, or made an effort to know how the body reached at the spot.The Delhi Police have also felt no need to arrest the six accused cops, including the SHO. "Strict administrative action has been taken. An FIR has been registered and investigation is underway. Required legal proceedings and a judicial magistrate inquiry have also been initiated," Joint Commissioner of Police Dependra Pathak said.
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