Five cops suspended over Agra custodial death
LUCKNOW: UP politics heated up once again as a sanitation worker allegedly died in police custody in Agra on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was detained by the police and later allowed to go to Agra to meet the victim’s family.
Sources said Arun Valmiki, 30, who was accused of stealing Rs 25 lakh from the warehouse of Jagdishpur police station, allegedly died in police custody after his condition deteriorated during interrogation in the lockup. Five police personnel, including an inspector, a sub-inspector and three constables, have been suspended after the incident came to light.
Priyanka was given permission to proceed to Agra along with only four of her associates as Section 144 of CrPC was clamped there. Earlier, she was stopped by the police as the district magistrate had banned
entry of politicians into Agra following the death.
Later, Lucknow Police Commissioner DK Thakur claimed that Priyanka was neither detained nor arrested but her cavalcade had been stopped as it was causing obstruction of traffic. She was taken to the Police Lines for a brief period before being let off. While SP chief Akhilesh yadav accused the police of committing the theft and framing the sanitary worker, BSP supremo Mayawati expressed shock over the incident.