The owner of a diamond factory and four police personnel attached to Mahidharpura station were booked after the factory manager allegedly took his life in Surat’s Katargam after being tortured in police custody, his brother said in a complaint to the Surat police Friday night.
Junagadh native Mukesh Sojitra, who resides in Katargam, allegedly took his life on Friday afternoon after his employer Vipul Moradiya and a few police personnel tortured him over an alleged case of theft at his workplace, his brother Kishorbhai said. The family rushed him to a hospital, but he succumbed by evening. Sojitra was the manager at Parin Diamonds, owned by Katargam resident Vipul Moradiya, at Nandi Doshi Wadi for over 18 months.
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The police allegedly refused to register a case against the diamond factory owner until Patidar Anamat Andolan Samithi (PAAS) convenor Alpesh Katheriya intervened.
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PremiumKishor, in his complaint, alleged that a few days ago, the owners of the diamond firm found a shortage in the stock of polished diamonds given to Mukesh to get it cut and polished by polishers under him. “Moradiya alleged that Sojitra was behind the theft, which the latter denied. Later, Moradiya approached the police. On May 23 and 24, Mahidharpura cops took my brother from his house at 10 pm and dropped him back at 2.30 am. On May 25, my brother was taken from home at night by Mahidharpura police constable Parbat Vadher and two others and they beat him severely at the police station to get his confessional statement and later dropped him home… Moradiya also beat Mukesh Sojitra in front of the police and threatened Mukesh, asking him to pay Rs 3.50 lakh to the firm the next day,” the complaint said.
“On the night of May 25, Mukesh, who was in police custody, called his brother Shantilal who lives in Ahmedabad and told him about the police torture. Constable Vadher took the phone from Mukesh and told Shantilal to tell his brother to confess. Shantilal recorded the conversation and requested Parbat not to beat his brother and that he will reach Surat and sort out the issue,” he added.
In the complaint, Kishorbhai also mentioned that Mukesh was unable to bear any more police torture, which prompted him to take his life. The family is not financially sound and could not manage to arrange Rs 3.5 lakh, he said.
Soon after Sojitra’s passing, Singhanpore police registered a case of accidental death. When the police refused to book officers of Mahidharpura police station and Moradiya, the family declined to take over Sojitra’s body on Friday evening.
After being intimated about the incident, PAAS convenor Katheriya spoke with the officers, following which top officers reached Singhanpore police station and later agreed to register a police complaint against Moradiya and personnel with Mahidharpura police.
On the basis of statements given by Kishor, the Singhanpore police on Friday evening booked Moradiya, constable Vadher and three other policemen.
Katheriya said, “The police were protecting cops and had planned to register Sojitra’s death as accidental… Injury marks are visible on Mukesh’s body. It clearly shows that the police had beaten him up… We also have the audio recording of the conversation of Mukesh with Shantilal. We got officers to register an offence against the cops on abetment to suicide and voluntarily causing hurt to extort confession. If the police feel they did the right thing, they should have registered an offence of theft. How can a person under suspicion be beaten up so severely?”
Singhanpore police inspector R C Vasava said, “We have registered offence in the case and have started the probe. We have sent our teams to Parin Diamonds to take the statements of fellow employees. We will also take CCTV footage from the firm. We have sent our teams to catch Moradiya who has gone missing. We have also sought the post-mortem report.”
The police have registered a case under IPC sections 306 (abetment to suicide), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 330 (voluntarily causing hurt to extort confession), 114 (abettor present when the offence is committed).
Surat police commissioner Ajay Kumar Tomar could not be reached for comment.
