Lucknow: A 66-year-old woman picked up by the police in Uttar Pradesh on charges of stealing has been missing for more than two months, even as her husband fears she has been killed while in custody.
"We have reasons to believe that my wife died on account of physical torture at the police station and her body must have been dumped in some river. Policemen thought as I am ailing and disabled, I would not be in position to take up the matter," Surya Narain stated.
Asha Devi was publicly beaten while being dragged from her hut to the Bheeti police station on April 30, after which she was never to be found anywhere, according to her family.
Police have now charged her physically disabled husband, Surya Narain, 70, with kidnapping and confining his wife in illegal custody.
Surya Narain, his 65-year-old widowed sister and another relative met the Director General of Police, Vikram Singh in Lucknow on Thursday and he assured them that a probe would be ordered in the matter. However, no steps have been initiated despite 24 hours having gone by.
"We want a high-level inquiry by an independent agency like CID (Crime Investigation Department), otherwise the probe would only end up giving clean chit to the culprits including the district superintendent of police who just refused to listen to our plea," said Surya Narain, who does not know where to seek justice now.
The family have been staging a silent protest outside the state assembly here.
Surya Narain made his first complaint to the Ambedkar Nagar district police chief on May 5, stating that a sugar mill official, Sunil Misra, had come to his home on April 30 along with mill security officer Pradeep Singh, police constable Harish Chanbdra, woman home guard Chandra Kala and driver Prem Narain Tiwari.
Accusing Asha Devi of stealing gold jewellery, they allegedly began to beat her up and dragged her to the police station more than a kilometre away. Surya Narain and his relatives were rebuked and turned away when they went to the police station, according to the complaint.
When the old woman remained missing for four days, Surya Narain managed to go over to the Ambedkar Nagar district headquarters and met the superintendent of police who took a written complaint from him but there was no progress after that.
The family moved an application before the State Human Rights Commission too but after failing to elicit any response, sought intervention of the Allahabad High Court on May 13.
As soon as the court issued a notice to the state, policemen at Bheeti registered a case against Surya Narain on May 28 for "kidnapping and confining his wife in illegal custody".
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