Allahabad, Mar 28 (PTI) The Allahabad High Court has asked the Uttar Pradesh additional chief secretary (home) to file his personal affidavit disclosing the steps taken by the government pursuant to submission of a judicial inquiry report in a custodial death case in Bulandshahr in 2020.

The court has fixed the next date of hearing on April 19.

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A bench comprising justices Ashwani Kumar Mishra and Rajnish Kumar passed the order after going through the report of the judicial inquiry conducted in the case.

The court on Friday also directed that the affidavit will explain the action taken against officers responsible in the matter.

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Somdutt alias Sonu had died in Khurja Nagar police station, in Bulandshahar district, in the intervening night of December 11 and 12, 2020 after he was arrested for kidnapping.

His family members had accused police of killing him in their custody and then getting his last rites conducted forcibly overnight without his postmortem.

Somdutt had eloped with a girl two days before her marriage.

Passing the order the court observed: "Custodial death is a serious matter, particularly when the allegations are found true in the judicial inquiry and police personnel responsible for the death of the victim. It is otherwise on record that no postmortem was conducted and the body was cremated by police personnel."

"In matters of this kind we expect the higher officers to be sensitive to the deprivation of liberty and to immediately proceed to take appropriate action, as is warranted in law. We are not convinced with the version of the State that it is a case of suicide by victim, as the judicial enquiry has come to a different conclusion. Appropriate report ought to have been lodged under Section 154 and investigation ought to have progressed. Claim for payment of compensation also ought to have been considered," the court said.

Since no such action was taken so far, the court called upon the Additional Chief Secretary (home) to examine the matter on priority and file his personal affidavit.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)