The Allahabad High Court has dismissed the bail applications of four Uttar Pradesh police personnel implicated in the fatal torture of a detainee in Jaunpur district three years ago.
In an order issued on September 30, Justice Samit Gopal instructed the trial court to expedite proceedings and avoid unwarranted adjournments. The court declined relief to the four accused officers—Jaysheel Tiwari, Ramkrit Yadav, Raj Kumar Verma, and Angad Prasad Chaudhary—after reviewing findings submitted by the Central Bureau of Investigation and noting the severity of the allegations.
Forensic Evidence and Cover-Up Allegations
According to the CBI chargesheet, the police personnel inflicted grievous bodily harm on Krishna Kumar Yadav, also known as Pujari, to extract a confession, ultimately causing fatal injuries. The investigative agency also established that official records were deliberately fabricated to disguise the custodial fatality as an accidental death or an assault carried out by unidentified individuals.
The findings were corroborated by an expert medical board from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. The board concluded that Yadav suffered extensive blunt-force trauma and determined that his death resulted from physiological shock caused by the cumulative impact of those injuries.
Supreme Court Precedent on Police Misconduct
In arriving at the decision, Justice Gopal referenced a March 12, 2024, ruling by the Supreme Court of India that revoked bail previously granted to co-accused officer Jitendra Singh.
The apex court had directed Singh to surrender before the trial court, observing that accusations of custodial death involving law enforcement demand a more stringent standard of scrutiny. It further underlined the profound gravity of murder charges under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code when assessing bail eligibility for police personnel.
Arrest, Investigation, and Framing of Charges
The case traces back to the early morning hours of February 11, 2021, when a Special Operation Group unit and the Baksa station house officer, accompanied by other personnel, removed Yadav from his residence around 3 a.m.
According to an initial police report lodged on February 12, 2021, a relative stated that Yadav was unable to stand and cried out to his mother for help, warning that the officers would kill him. The family was later informed that he had died while in police custody. The original FIR was registered at Baksha under IPC provisions covering murder, common intention, and criminal conspiracy.
A division bench of the Allahabad High Court transferred the investigation to the CBI on September 8, 2021. The central agency subsequently registered its own case and chargesheeted 11 police personnel. A Special CBI Court in Lucknow formally framed charges against the accused on September 18, 2024.
