Bihar: BHRC awards compensation of Rs 7 lakh to widow of software engineer beaten to death by policemen in Bhagalpur district

PATNA: The Bihar Human Rights Commission (BHRC) on Friday awarded a compensation of Rs 7 lakh to the widow of a software engineer Ashutosh Kumar Pathak who was brutally beaten to death allegedly by station house office (SHO) of Bihpur police station in Bhagalpur district and some other police men following a minor brawl on the road during Durga Puja in October this year.
The incident of minor brawl between the policemen and Pathak took place at Mahesh Sthan Chowk on NH-31 under Bihpur police station around 3pm on October 24 (on the day of Maha Navmi Puja) when the software engineer was returning his native village Mandwa on a motorcycle along with his wife Sneha Kumari and their two-year-old daughter Manvi Pathak after performing puja at the nearby Bhramarpur Durga Sthan.
Pathak, who was working as a software engineer in a private firm in Pune, had returned to his native village Mandwa under Bihpur police station after the nationwide lockdown due to Covid-19.
As per a police inquiry report submitted to the BHRC, 30-year-old Pathak was not only brutally thrashed by the then SHO Ranjit Kumar, his private driver Jehangir Rain and three other policemen, but was also put up in the police station’s lock-up for three hours while the victim continue to bleed due to thrashing. Pathak fell unconscious inside the police lock-up due to excessive bleeding.
Pathak was released from the lock-up for treatment only after his uncle and some other people reached the police station and made request to the SHO. Pathak died at Mayaganj hospital (Bhagalpur) around 3am on October 25 during the course of treatment.
Taking a suo-motu action in the case on the basis of newspaper reports, the BHRC asked the Bhagalpur DM to submit a detailed report in the matter.
“Such an incident is totally unacceptable in a civilized society. The state government should ensure the ‘strictest-possible’ and an exemplary punishment against the guilty policemen in this case, so that no police personnel can muster courage to commit such heinous crime in the future,” the commission’s member (Judicial) Ujjawal Kumar Dubey said in his order while awarding the compensation to the deceased’s widow.
The commission further asked the Bhagalpur DM to ensure payment of Rs 7 lakh to the deceased’s widow Sneha Kumari by February 10, 2021.
“The state government has an option that it can, as per the rules, realize the amount of compensation from the guilty police men,” Dubey said in his 7-page order.