Beed Man dies suspiciously in custody, CID to probe police violence

A 48-year-old man died allegedly after getting beaten up in police custody as a suspect in a robbery case in Beed district's Parli City Police Station on Tuesday evening. While the local police had initially attributed his death to a ‘fit’, the Beed Police are treating this as "custodial death" and said that they are ready to take action against their own if found guilty.

The deceased has been identified as Zareen Shaikh Patewale, a resident of Malkapur, Parli. He was taken into custody by Parli police on Tuesday as part of a robbery investigation, wherein a bag full of over Rs 4 lakh was snatched by an accountant by three unknown persons on a motorcycle, as per the local journalists.

Patewale’s son Sameer Khan alleged that his father was beaten up to the point where he lost his life. In a video bite, he also told local journalists that he was beaten up too.

“The police picked up my father and beat him up in the police station. He died right there because of the beating. Then they just dumped him at the Government Hospital and ran away. I demand that those responsible for my father’s death must face action at the earliest,” Khan is heard saying.

After the incident, the victim's relatives and other villagers gathered at the police station demanding justice for Patewale. Beed SP Nandkumar Thakur along with other senior officials also reached Parli after this and took charge of the situation.

“An accused was brought in for a probe in a robbery case here. His condition deteriorated within 30 minutes of his arrival at the police station. So he was taken to the hospital. However, he was declared dead right upon reaching the hospital,” Thakur told Indie Journal.

_{Rahul Khan, victim's son}

He further said that although there has not been any arrest in the case yet, the police are treating this as custodial death.

“Accordingly, we have handed over the investigation to CID. The postmortem of the dead body was carried out in-camera, in front of a magistrate. We have preserved all the CCTV footages from the police station. We will provide all the information to the CID that they will need in the course of the investigation,” Thakur added.

Local sources also said that the lock-ups where the alleged incident took place have been sealed by the police.

“We will ensure that the probe in this matter is impartial and we are ready to take action against the concerned police officials if they are found guilty,” Thakur asserted.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time that a case of custodial death has been reported at Parli Police Station. Just last month, the CID arrested two cops in a 2014 illegal detention and death in custody case at Parli itself. 

Inspector Umashankar Kasture and Assistant Inspector Balwant Jamadar were accused of illegally detaining a suspected bike thief Tukaram Jogadand. The police allegedly assaulted him to get a confession after which he fell unconscious. While the police said that he died by suicide, experts concluded that he was unconscious when he was hanged. However, the action in Jogadand’s case only took place around nine years after his death.

We will follow up on the story as the conclusions of the CID probe come to light.