Haryana Chief Minister ML Khattar said on Friday that the death of a teenage Dalit boy accused of stealing a pigeon in Gohana is a case of suicide and the boy was not being interrogated.
Addressing a press conference, Khattar said that no interrogation was going on and the family came to the police station with a complaint and went back home after the matter was resolved. He added that the boy had committed suicide at night.
However, the family claims that the boy, Govind, died in police custody after they failed to bribe the police. They alleged that the police had taken the boy into custody on theft charges and had demanded Rs 15,000 for his release.
A postmortem report shows that Govind, 15, had died of hanging. Doctors, who conducted the postmortem, said that there was no injury mark on the body.
The incident comes close on the heels of two Dalit children being burnt alive at Sunped village in Faridabad.
Addressing reporters, Chief Minister Khattar said that the law and order situation in Haryana was fine, and individual incidents shouldn’t be given communal colour.
