Lucknow, Oct 14 (PTI) Congress’s Uttar Pradesh unit chief Ajay Rai on Monday met the family of the 24-year-old Dalit man, who died in police custody here, and demanded a compensation of Rs 1 crore for them and a government job for his widow.
He rejected police claims of Aman Gautam dying because of heart attack, arguing that the daily wage earner did not have any illness and was not under medication. He demanded that police personnel involved in the matter be booked for murder.
Gautam was arrested by the police during a raid on a gambling den in the Ambedkar Nagar neighbourhood of Vikas Nagar in Lucknow on Friday. He later died in police custody, with his family claiming that he was beaten to death by the cops. An FIR has been registered against four policemen in connection with the case, officials said on Sunday.
“This government is continuously harassing people who earn their living by doing labour. You can see the incident that happened with Aman in Lucknow, what happened with a girl in Ayodhya, and what is happening in Bahraich. They are harassing and doing injustice to poor people,” Rai told reporters after meeting Gautam’s family.
The government is harassing people who are unemployed and illiterate and the entire state “has been destroyed by police atrocities”, he said. “There is an atmosphere of lawlessness in the entire state, it is jungle raj.” Asked about police claims that Gautam died of a heart attack, Rai said, “Will a 25-year-old man get a heart attack? I don’t think he had any disease or was taking any medicine. They (police) are lying.
“They (the family) say that he died due to police beatings. It is a case of murder. All the police personnel involved should be booked for murder and action should be taken against them.” Rai said the Congress party leaders have come to meet the family on instructions of party’s senior leadership. Certainly Congress stands with the bereaved family fully, he said.
“Wherever there are atrocities, injustice… even legally, those who want such help from us we are with them,” he said.
Rai said, “The family should be given a compensation of Rs 1 crore by the government and his wife, who is around 20-22 years old now, should get a government job so that she can live her life with security.” If these demands are not fulfilled, the entire government should be considered to be involved in such murders, the state Congress chief added.
Politics over the Dalit man’s death is heating up in UP with Azad Samaj Party MP Chandrashekhar Azad, Samajwadi Party MP R K Chowdhury calling on the victim’s family on Sunday. On Saturday, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati expressed grief over Gautam’s death and demanded action against the policemen.
Earlier in her complaint, Gautam’s wife Roshni alleged that her husband was sitting at the Ambedkar Park in Vikas Nagar on Friday night when a police team arrived, and thrashed and abused Gautam, who fell unconscious and had to be taken to a hospital by the cops.
She also alleged that constable Shailendra Singh was the main person behind the assault on her husband. The police, on their part, claimed that a raid was conducted at the Ambedkar Park on Friday night following reports of gambling activities.
“Two individuals, including Aman Gautam, were apprehended and taken into custody. While being taken to the police station, Gautam’s condition deteriorated. He was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival,” Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP) Jitendra Kumar Dubey said on Saturday.
“According to the postmortem report, no visible injuries were found on the body and the cause of death was found to be heart attack (cardiogenic shock),” a police statement said on Saturday. PTI KIS SKY SKY
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