Altaf (22) was laid to rest on Wednesday but his parents Chand Mian and Fatima are yet to come to terms with the reality that their son is dead. “I want justice,” he keeps saying. He says he was pressured by the police into writing that the son was depressed and that he has no complaints against the police.

“I don’t even know what depression means,” Chand Mian, a labourer, said lying on his bed with a red blanket covering him and his younger son Sharik comforting him on Thursday at his residence in Ahrauli Nagla Syed as groups of policemen guarded the streets leading to the house.

Recalling the sequence of events, Chand Mian said two policemen and three civilians including their local milkman — who everyone addressed as ‘Panditji’ — came and told them that the milkman’s daughter, 16, had been missing and he suspected Altaf’s involvement in it.

“Altaf was playing video game on his phone outside the house. The police checked our whole house and took Altaf saying they’ll release him after questioning,” the father said. However, when they reached the police station where he was taken to, the family was shooed away. “I could hear Altaf’s voice. It sounded like he was being tortured and was asking for help.”

Altaf’s mother Fatima said ‘Panditji’ had threatened them when the police took Altaf saying Altaf’s throat would be slit if he didn’t tell the truth.

Altaf’s mother Fatima and relatives at his house in Ahrauli Nagla of Kasganj district, Uttar Pradesh.
 
| Photo Credit: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

The next morning (November 10), Chand Mian said one of their relatives went to the police station around 10 a.m. and saw Altaf from a distance as police didn’t allow the family to meet them. He seemed alright, they said.

Around 5 p.m., Chand Mian was informed by a villager that Altaf was not well and was admitted in the community healthcare centre. When the family rushed there, they were informed that Altaf was dead and taken to the district hospital. When Chand Mian, his wife and a few others reached the district hospital, they were shown the body in the mortuary.

It was all hell broke lose after that, Chand Mian said. The police told him that Altaf has taken his life inside the toilet because he got scared. “I couldn’t believe them,” he said.

“There were so many police officers around me. They told me that they will give his body only after I sign papers. I am an uneducated man who cannot read or write. I don’t even know how to sign. There was a case registered against Altaf in Noida three years ago following the death of a person in an accident by the car he was driving. He was a minor then. The police officials told me that they will settle that case as well,” the father said explaining why he signed the document in which it was written that Altaf had taken his life “in depression”, that he has no complaints against the police and that he didn’t wish to pursue the matter. Chand Mian said he was made to sign the documents around 1 a.m. and a video was also recorded by the police in which he said he was satisfied with the investigation.

“My son was mentally fit. He had no problems at all,” Fatima said.

Sagir, Altaf’s uncle, who wrote the statement on Chand Mian’s behalf, recalled that the police officials took Altaf’s parents to a nearby police chowki after they saw the body. “There were senior and junior officers. I was standing outside. That’s where the police convinced them to let the matter go. This was just half an hour after they saw their son’s body. How can one expect them to take rational decisions. I was then called inside. They told me to write this statement. A lower rank officer narrated and I wrote,” Sagir said.

Chand Mian said the police have given him ₹5 lakh which he accepted on Thursday but is willing to give it back. “They said all my problems will be solved with this money. If they want, they can take it back but I want justice. I strongly believe he has been killed inside the police station,” he said.

The family has questions. How can one end one’s life from a 2.5-feet tap holder? Why was the magistrate not called inside the police station when this happened? If the police have nothing to hide, why do they want to bury the matter?

According to police sources, Altaf used his hoodie’s nylon tightening ring and lay down inside the toilet. However, the photographs that went viral make it seem like Altaf was standing. Responding to the second question, an officer said Altaf was alive when officials found him and was taken to the hospital where he died because of which magistrate was not called to the police station but to the hospital.

The officer said lapses have been made by police officers due to which five including the Station House Officer have been suspended. “The daily diary entry was not made when Altaf was brought in. Three senior officers including the SHO, the senior SI and the SI left the station leaving Altaf unattended,” he said on condition of anonymity.

According to the officer, the police have evidence that Altaf and the missing girl were in touch. “During initial questioning, Altaf had said the girl was mentioning to leave for Delhi but he wasn’t sharing with whom she had gone,” he said.

Chand Mian said Altaf — who was also a labourer — worked at “Panditji’s” house for a few days a month ago.

At the missing girl’s under-construction double storey residence in Lalpur, barely a km from Altaf’s residence, the door was locked from outside and neighbours said the family didn’t talk to many people in the neighbourhood.

Police sources said ‘Panditji’ himself is now absconding and the girl is yet to be traced.

An impartial investigation is being conducted and a magisterial enquiry is ongoing into Altaf’s death. If the family submits a complaint, we will register an FIR based on it,” said Kasganj SP Rohan Botre.