Prayagraj: The Allahabad high court has rejected the bail applications of four Uttar Pradesh police personnel accused in connection with the 2021 Jaunpur custodial death case. The HC also directed the trial court to expedite the proceedings and avoid unnecessary adjournments.
In its 95-page order, Justice Samit Gopal reproduced the allegations mentioned in the CBI chargesheet that the accused police personnel caused grievous injuries to the deceased, Krishna Kumar Yadav alias Pujari, to extract a confession and subsequently murdered him by inflicting injuries sufficient to cause his death. The court rejected the bail applications of Jaysheel Tiwari, Ramkrit Yadav, Raj Kumar Verma and Angad Prasad Chaudhary, who were among the police personnel chargesheeted by the CBI in connection with Yadav’s death in police custody in Feb 2021. In the bail rejection order, the court also considered the Supreme Court’s March 12, 2024, order cancelling the bail granted to co-accused Jitendra Singh. It also noted the gravity of the charge under Section 302 of the IPC and directed the accused to surrender before the CBI court. The HC, in its order dated Sept 30, noted that the ongoing trial had examined 11 prosecution witnesses.
The CBI alleged that false records were created to portray his death as resulting from an accident or an assault by unknown persons rather than from physical torture in police custody. The informant alleged that later that night, police personnel returned with Krishna, who was allegedly unable to stand and shouted to his mother to save him, saying that the police would kill him. The family was subsequently informed that Krishna had died in police custody. The SC had observed that the case involved an allegation of custodial death against a member of the police force and that a stricter approach was warranted while considering bail.
The court also referred to its earlier observations in one of the related cases that the incident involved custodial torture and death with robbery in a well-planned conspiracy and constituted a clear-cut case of abuse of police powers and police high-handedness.
Subsequently, a division bench of the HC, on Sept 8, 2021, directed that the investigation into the custodial death case be transferred to the CBI.