Firing at Salman Khan's house: Mother of accused Anuj Thapan moves Punjab and Haryana HC for CBI probe into son’s ‘custodial death’

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, May 6

Just about a fortnight after firing outside actor Salman Khan’s house in Bandra, the mother of an accused on Monday moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking CBI probe to “trace out” the reason for his custodial death.

In her petition against the Union of India, the State of Punjab and other respondents, Reeta Devi of Abohar contended that her son Anuj Kumar “tragically passed away while in police custody under circumstances that gave rise to significant concerns regarding the nature and cause of death”.

The petition filed through counsel Davinder Singh Khurana is scheduled to come up for preliminary hearing before the high court Bench of Justice Vinod S Bhardwaj on Tuesday.

Among other things, Reeta Devi contended: “As her son died in police custody and there are so many leaders and influential persons who gave the statement before death, the possibility of involvement of police can be there. The earlier postmortem was conducted at Mumbai in the control of the same police in whose custody Anuj died and the police said it is suicide. So for proper and just investigation, the re-conduct of postmortem is necessary and in the interest of justice”.

Going into the background of the matter, Khurana submitted that Anuj, one of the accused in the firing incident outside Salman Khan’s house, was arrested on April 23 by the Maharashtra Police.

A Special MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act) Court in Mumbai remanded him to police custody on April 29 till May 8. But the petitioner’s son died in custody of Mumbai police on May 1.

“As per the police story, Anuj hung himself inside the toilet of the lockup, using a bed sheet. He was rushed to the State-run GT Hospital, where he was declared dead during treatment”.

Khurana added fundamental right to life and personal as enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution of India encompassed the right to a fair and impartial investigation into any demise, “particularly the one that occurs under suspicious circumstances while in the custody of law enforcement agencies”.