New Delhi: Three Railway Protection Force officers in UP’s Gonda have been been charged with murder after the death of a 35-year-old man from the Dalit community due to alleged custodial torture.

According to the Indian Express, the victim, Sanjay Kumar Sonkar, was picked from his home on Tuesday by RPF officers regarding a recent robbery case at the Barua Chak railway station. The RPF personnel were looking into the theft of oil from a goods train at the station.

The three officers – sub-inspectors Surendra Kumar and Karan Singh Yadv and constable Amit Kumar Yadav – have been suspended and a departmental inquiry has been initiated against them.

The victim’s brother, Raju Sonkar, has alleged in his complaint that the RPF officers tortured him in custody. 

Senior Commandant RPF, Chandra Mohan Mishra told the Indian Express that the officers had found footage showing three men stealing oil from the train and hiding in a nearby field. Based on the video, they had nabbed one suspect, who had revealed Sanjay’s name. 

The officers investigating the theft had then picked up Sanjay and recovered oil from his possession on the same day. Mishra claimed that Sanjay’s health deteriorated during the recovery procedure.

The RPF personnel then rushed Sanjay to a government medical college where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

The autopsy report did not reveal the cause of death and the viscera has been preserved for further tests, the Indian Express reported. Circle Officer (CO), City, Gonda, Anand Kumar Rai told the paper that no injury marks were present on the body, except a few abrasions that could not have led to Sanjay’s death.

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