HC summons Varanasi SSP to apprise it of BHU student gone ‘missing’ from police custody

But during the hearing of the matter on Tuesday, the bench was not satisfied with the pleas of government authorities, including the police, and summoned the Varanasi SSP. As per the letter written to the high court, Shiv Kumar Trivedi was picked up by some policemen from the MP Theatre Ground of the BHU on February 12, 2020 and was taken to the Lanka police station in Varanasi.

The Allahabad High Court has summoned the Varanasi SSP with a personal affidavit to apprise it of the status of probe into the disappearance of a BHU student who went missing in February this year allegedly after being picked up by the police. A bench of Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice S D Singh on Tuesday directed the Varanasi senior superintendent of police to be present before it on September 3, the next date of hearing of the matter, with his affidavit on the issue.

The bench had earlier taken cognizance of the disappearance of the student from the police custody on the basis of a letter written to it on behalf of his father and had converted it into a habeas corpus petition. The letter written to the high court had highlighted the plight of a father who has been unable to establish contact with his son Shiv Kumar Trivedi, a 2nd year BSc student at BHU, ever since February 12, 2020.

The court earlier had issued notices to the Varanasi district magistrate and SSP and had asked the government counsel to submit the government's stand on the case of the missing student. But during the hearing of the matter on Tuesday, the bench was not satisfied with the pleas of government authorities, including the police, and summoned the Varanasi SSP.

As per the letter written to the high court, Shiv Kumar Trivedi was picked up by some policemen from the MP Theatre Ground of the BHU on February 12, 2020 and was taken to the Lanka police station in Varanasi. But there has been no sign of the student ever since then, the letter had said, adding Trivedi's father had made several rounds to the police stations and lodged complaints to the senior police officials of Varanasi but all in vain.

It was alleged in the letter that Trivedi was picked up by police from the Theatre Ground on a call made to the police control room on telephone number 112 by a fellow student, who had reported that Trivedi was unusually standing in the ground. The police, however, kept denying that Trivedi was ever taken to the Lanka police station until the production of proof of call details to Dial 112. As per the letter, police have now accepted that Trivedi was in the Lanka police station on the intervening night of February 12 and 13.

However, it has given no further details of the missing student.