BENGALURU: While around 20 police personnel are trying to trace the family of Satish Kumar alias ‘Sketch’ Manja, who allegedly jumped from the second floor of Amruthahalli police station on Thursday, the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has decided to file a suo motu case against the police officials present in the station during the victim’s interrogation.
“We will file a suo motu case against Amruthahalli police. We will conduct interrogations, and if there had been any kind of torture, we will ensure that the police personnel responsible are prosecuted,” said SHRC member Roopak Kumar Dutta.
The CID has launched a probe into the alleged custodial death as per the norms. A team, led by DySP Jagannath, launched the probe on Friday morning.
A magistrate was called to do the spot inspection from where Satish allegedly jumped to his death. The entire process was videographed as per the directive of the commission.
A CID official said, “The cause of death will be known only after the autopsy of the body, for which the family is yet to be traced. Once they arrive the autopsy will be conducted.”
SHRC members are irked with the reasons the police has been giving. A member told TNIE, “If he was a habitual offender and has cases against him, why doesn’t the police have details of his family members? Whenever an arrest is made it is the responsibility of the police to inform the family. All these give rise to a lot of suspicion, and how flawed the department is.”
The police are claiming that though he was earlier arrested by the Tilaknagar, Kodigehalli and Basaveshwarnagar police on the same charges, he had allegedly given false information of his whereabouts.
Several inspectors from nearby stations and the Deputy Commissioner of Police (ACP) visited the station and conducted an initial round of enquiry. The 36-year-old ‘habitual offender’ had allegedly jumped from the second floor of the police station during interrogation on Thursday afternoon. He was reportedly brought to the station at 9.30 am and four policemen were interrogating him over a recent burglary when Satish reportedly pushed one them and jumped off the balcony. Satish is said to be involved in more than 20 house burglary cases.