The Uttar Pradesh Police on Thursday said they will file a murder case against three policemen involved in the alleged custodial death of a security guard in Hapur district on October 13, ANI reported. But some reports said seven policemen will be charged with murder.

“In connection with custodial death of Pradeep, murder case will be lodged against area circle officer, concerned inspector and in charge of police check post,” Additional Director General of Police Prashant Kumar said. Three policemen, including the station house officer of Pilkhuwa town, were suspended earlier this week.

Pradeep Tomar, a resident of Pilkhuwa, was called to the station for questioning on Sunday in connection with a murder case. He died hours later after the policemen allegedly assaulted him. His 11-year-old son, who accompanied him to the police station, claimed that Tomar was repeatedly kicked, punched, hit with planks of wood, given electric shocks and pierced with a screwdriver.

“My father kept begging them not to beat him and asked them what he had done wrong but they kept hitting him,” Tomar’s son had told media personnel. “They were drunk. He fell at their feet and asked them to leave him but they tortured him so much that he defecated and urinated. Even when he was taken to the local hospital, he was not given any treatment. He was just locked in a room.”

There were reportedly deep bruise marks on Tomar’s posterior and stab wounds all over his body.

The boy alleged that the police threatened him to not narrate the incident to anyone, and allegedly put a gun in his mouth. “Later they gave me a packet of chips and told me not to tell anyone about what I had seen,” he added. Tomar’s family had demanded that murder charges be brought against the accused policemen.

Hapur Superintendent of Police Yeshveer Singh had said Tomar was called for questioning about the murder of his sister-in-law, which took place in August. He was a suspect along with his brother-in-law Digamber. The police officer added that Tomar developed health complications during questioning and was taken to a local hospital in Meerut, where he died. One of Tomar’s relatives had accused the police of trying to defame the deceased security guard.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra criticised the Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday, PTI reported. The incident is shameful, she said. “The BJP government has completely failed to stop crime,” Vadra said. “Incidents of police excesses are coming every day.”

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