Nazish Hussain, TwoCircles.net
The family of thirty-year-old Tihar jail inmate Mahtab, who died inside the jail on 29 June, suspect police conspiracy in his murder.
Mahtab died in Tihar jail (number 8) on Monday, 29 June. In the FIR filed by the police, a jail inmate named Zakir murdered him around 5:50 in the morning.
Speaking to TwoCircles.net, Mahtab’s family said they don’t believe the police version. The family alleged that Mahtab was murdered in a conspiracy by the police.
Mahtab’s brother Abdul Salam, who is a constable in Lucknow said that, “Police officers obviously won’t kill themselves. They would have got him killed by some inmate only. Otherwise, their job would be in danger, which is why they plotted this.”
According to Abdul Salam, Mahtab was facing harassment by the police officers after he complained against them on 4 March. In his application, he mentioned that he was facing difficulties in the jail. Abdul Salam continued that earlier too Mahtab had raised complaints before the court against the police personnel in jail.
“They used to ask him for money. We would send 10,000 every month which would go to the superintendent. After the ongoing lockdown, we started sending money online. There was a guy. We transferred money to his account,” Abdul Salam told TwoCircles.net.
In March, after Mahtab filed a complaint against them there was some tension between Mahtab and police personnel.
“Whenever he spoke with us he always named police personnel saying they harass him and would ask for money and beat him up,” he said and added that this was going on for the last five to six months.
Abdul had sent Rs 4000 to Mahtab four-five days prior to his death. Soon after this, Abdul received a call from his brother saying “you have sent me less money and I am facing problems here.”
After this conversation, Matab’s family received a call from the police asking them to come and collect Mahtab’s body.
“My son got killed because of money. We could not pay money to the police because of lockdown,” Mahtab’s mother told TwoCircles.net
She said that for her son’s death in custody, “no one is to blame except police personnel.”
“They used to harass my son and ask for money. Whenever I used to visit my son he would tell me and ask me to pay Rs 10,000 to the police officers. Many times I have given money to a police constable to give it to the other police personnel inside,” she revealed.
Mahtab’s mother said that he never had any prior issues with the inmates. “Whenever I would visit him, the other inmates always greeted me nicely. Mahtab never spoke of any enmity with any inmates,” she said.
Abdul said when Mahtab suffered from paralysis in the jail, the jail superintendent called them and informed them. “But this time we did not get any such information from them regarding Mahtab’s death. The call we got from jail was in the evening around 4:56 p.m. while Mahtab had died in the morning. They just asked us to come and collect the body,” he said.
The incident happened in the morning around 5:00 a.m. “It even appeared in the news early morning but we had no information about it,” he said.
Abdul said he was on duty in Lucknow when he received the news. “By the time I reached home it got very late. My family went to collect the body of Mahtab in the evening. They said that the family’s statement would be taken by a Magistrate and then they will release the body. However, the next day they refused to take our statement,” he added.
Abdul demands that the family’s statements should be taken.
Mahtab was an undertrial at Tihar Jail in a rape case since 2014.
In the FIR regarding his death filed on 29 June, “An inmate (Zakir), son of Sher Khan who is said to have murdered Mahtab had done so to avenge his sister.
Abdul dismisses this claim, saying “the girl with whom the case was going on had no brother.”
“Even if they are saying that Zakir killed him, Zakir could not kill him without support from police,” Abdul added.
Adbul said that the family wants the case to be investigated by the CBI. “We believe that it was due to the money issue as there was some tension going on between police and Mahtab for long. The problem arose after Mahtab filed a complaint against them in March. And you know in a government job, it gets problematic if a complaint is filed against you,” he added.
“If we get to see the CCTV footage, then everything will get clear,” Adbul said.
Speaking to TwoCircles.net, Afjal Khan, lawyer of Mahtab said that he has been fighting the case since 2014 and Mahtab would tell him of police harassment. “On each date of hearing he would say that police are harassing him. Mahtab would say, “They are asking me for money. Where would I get the money? Mahtab filed many applications stating that police officers have been harassing him and asking for money. He also filed an application against a doctor,” he said.
“At times, his mother told me that she has given Rs 10,000 to someone in jail. Though, I don’t know who she used to give to,” he said.
Advocate Khan further said that the family had told him several times of a constable named Manoj, who along with others, would harass Mahtab for money. “It is not possible for Manoj alone to harass him for money unless he gets support from his higher authorities,” said Advocate Khan.
Talking of police cruelty towards Mahtab, Advocate Khan said that while in custody Mahtab suffered from paralysis, after which he was out on parole for five months. “As he got a little better, he was sent back to jail. In jail, they would not let him go to the doctor for a checkup. He was only given some pills for pain and fever and that was all,” Advocate Khan said.
Advocate Khan said that he had made several pleas at the Court for Mahtab to be given medical treatment. “When Mahtab used to complain about his illness I asked the judge for his medical treatment. The judge would ask for his health report from jail. And every time they would send a report showing everything is normal, even though he had ailments. It would take me much effort to get permission for a health check-up,” he said.
Casting doubt over the police version regarding Mahtab’s death, Advocate Khan said that when he spoke with the police in the jail superintendent’s office in the evening, “someone told me that Mahtab fell from the top and succumbed to his injuries. When I questioned as to how he got to the top in the first place, the police personnel refused to answer and disconnected the call.”
Advocate Khan said that police have been changing their statements over the cause of Mahtab’s death. “They have been giving different reasons for his death. Also, we did not get any information from the jail authorities till evening about Mahtab’s death. If we could obtain the CCTV camera, then we can know the actual situation,” he said.
Advocate Khan said that due to the COVID-19 lockdown they are not able to go to court. “There is no staff or judge. We are not able to approach the court with our concerns. We want to raise the point that the police must file CCTV footage in the charge sheet. This is my request to the investigation officer,” he said and added, “I would demand to check the CCTV cameras in the jail as there still is time. After 15 days they might say that the CCTV footage got deleted. And if they fail to get the CCTV footage it would mean they killed him under conspiracy which is why they did not produce the CCTV footage.”