Wadala railway police custodial torture: No proof to press murder charge against cops, CBI to HC

The CBI on Thursday told the Bombay High Court that there was no evidence to make out an offence of murder against eight railway police officials, accused of torturing a 25-year-old man in custody in 2014. The agency told a division bench of Justices B P Dharmadhikari and Sadhana Jadhav that while the eight accused policemen did torture the man in jail, both physically and sexually, the man died after being knocked down by a train when he was trying to escape from the police.

The court was hearing a plea filed by victim Angelo Valdaris's father, seeking that the accused be charged under section 302 (murder) of IPC. The eight accused are currently booked under IPC sections 338 (causing grievous hurt or endangering the life of another person) and 377 (unnatural sex).

Valdaris, who had been in the railway police's custody for petty theft, was found dead on the railway tracks in April 2014. "After carrying out a thorough probe and collecting evidence, including witnesses' statements, medical experts' opinion and forensic reports, the CBI has come to the conclusion that section 302 of the IPC is not made out," CBI counsel Hiten Venegaonkar said.

He added that the accused policemen had manipulated the station diary entries to cover up the fact that the deceased was arrested on April 15, 2014. "The agency has also found out that Valdaris was sexually assaulted and tortured by the police," Venegaonkar said.

Payoshi Roy, lawyer of Valdaris's father, however, told the court that the CBI, before filing a charge sheet in the case, was not ready to even accept that Valdaris was sexually assaulted. She said that section 377 of the IPC was added only after directions from the high court.

After hearing the arguments, the high court reserved its order. In 2017, the CBI had filed its charge sheet in the case against eight railway police officials under IPC sections 338 and 377.

According to Valdaris's father, the victim and his three friends were picked up by the Wadala railway police on charges of robbery. During the custody, the police officers continuously tortured and mentally harassed the youngsters and even forced them to perform unnatural sex with each other, his family claimed.

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