By IANS,
Srinagar : Doctors who carried out the autopsy of Zamin Rashid, who died in police custody in Jammu and Kashmir, confirmed finding torture marks on his body, sources said Thursday.
The 26-year-old died July 31 in north Kashmir’s Sopore town.
The final verdict can only be arrived at after forensic reports corroborate the preliminary evidence, sources said.
Muhammad Ahsan Mir, the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) of Sopore who is conducting the magisterial inquiry into the youth’s death, visited the Tarzoo police station where Zamin was initially taken.
The SDM did not find any lock-up there, a local newspaper reported.
This indicates the youth was detained by the Sopore camp of the special operations group (SOG), which is the elite counter-insurgency force of the local police, and not by the Tarzoo police station, sources said.
Meanwhile, Abdul Rashid Shalla, Zamin’s father, Thursday demanded a judicial probe into his son’s death.
It is mandatory to make arrests after a First Information Report (FIR) of murder is registered against anybody, said Shalla, a retired sub-inspector.
The police lodged an FIR under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code but did not arrest anybody. “The accused are roaming free to influence the investigations,” he said.
Zamin alias Anjum was picked up by police July 30 after the family of a local businessman, Muhammad Ashraf, killed by unknown gunmen July 28, alleged he had identified Ashraf for the assassins.
A sub-inspector, a head constable and a constable of SOG camp were suspended by the government July 31.