Charged with theft, minor commits suicide in jail
Feeling humiliated after being charged with theft at Fathabad police station, a minor aged 17, who was brought to the Borstel jail in Ambala Thursday, committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan on Saturday evening. The minor was brought to the Borstel jail here from Fatehabad on Thursday. A case of theft was registered against him at the Fatehabad police station. In this case, one Vinod Kumar living in a rented house at Bhatia colony, Fatehabad, had lodged a complaint that he had gone out of the city on January 11 after locking the house. On returning the next day, he found the lock broken and Rs 3,000 stolen from the almirah. After making enquiries from the nighbourhood, the police registered a case under sections 457 and 380 of the IPC.
The family members coming from Fatehabad levelled allegations about torture of their son. A postmortem was conducted on Saturday by a panel of three doctors supervised by Judicial Magistrate Yachna. Prior to the postmortem, Suman alias Sonu, mother of the deceased, and sister Monu levelled allegation of torture against the Fatehabad police. They also alleged that the victim was mercilessly beaten up at the police station. They held the Borstel jail authorities responsible for suicide of the boy. However, the police pacified the agitated family members. The boy had been kept in a separate room according to corona guidelines. When a jail employee went to give him meals, he found the victim’s body hanging from the ceiling fan.
As many as 20 detainees in the jail had escaped by scaling the wall in 2019 due to lack of security arrangements.