Guwahati: The Assam Director General of Police, GP Singh on Saturday ordered the withdrawal of the suspension orders of Inspector in Charge of Khelmati Outpost Dipankar Changmai and on-duty sentry Constable Bhairab Deori and Home Guard Anil Bora in the custodial death of a detainee in Khelmati Police Outpost, Lakhimpur, Assam.
Singh said that according to the post-mortem report of the deceased Arshad Ali, he died because of “pre-existing coronary disease.”
The Assam DGP took to X and wrote, “Reference recent North Lakhimpur incident of death in police custody — Preliminary PM reports are indicative of death due to pre-existing coronary disease. District SP has been directed to withdraw suspension orders of the policemen including IC. However, detailed enquiry and mandatory follow-up would continue.”
The incident was reported on May 23 and there was a massage outage due to the incident took place in front of the Khelmati Police Outpost on NH-15.
Ali (42) from Pub Chanmari in North Lakhimpur was picked up by Khelmati police on the charges of mobile phone theft.
According to police Arshad fell ill inside the police outpost and was taken to Lakhimpur Medical College and Hospital where he was declared “brought dead”.
As the news of the death spread, thousands of people demonstrated in front of the Khelmati Police Outpost demanding an explanation and justice for the death of the accused in police custody.
As the crowd swelled a large number of police personnel and paramilitary forces were deployed on the spot.
The demonstrating crowd blocked the NH-15 for two hours.
Police lathi-charged the demonstrators to disperse the crowd which was responded to by heavy stone pelting.