After death of Dalit in Sitapur, SHO booked for murder

Maya refused to file an FIR against Govind and left the police station along with Raghubar, he said. Govind also was allowed to return. Later, a man informed police that someone was lying outside his shop, close to the police station. Police identified the man as Govind and rushed him to a primary health centre.

“In the evening, Govind died during treatment. After coming to know about the death, a police team sent his body home. Since then there was no FIR, postmortem was not conducted,” said Additional Superintendent of Police, North (Sitapur) MP Chauhan. The next day, Govind’s brother Raghunandan lodged an FIR against Maya, Raju and Raghubar on murder charges at the Rampur Kala police station. No one has been arrested in the case.

After the case was lodged, the police sent the body for autopsy.

“The autopsy report stated that cause of death could not be ascertained… The report stated there were minor injuries on the body,” said ASP Chauhan.

Govind’s family alleged that he died because of severe beating by police. Raghunandan claimed police had forced him to lodge FIR against Maya and her family members. On Friday, an FIR was lodged against SHO and other policemen on charges of murder at the Rampur Kala police station. SC/ST Act was invoked against policemen, said Chauhan.