Police cremate youth's skeleton 3 years after

Azamgharh : Oct, 28

A youth's skeleton lying on the terrace of a police station in Uttar Pradesh's Azamgarh district since July 2007 has allegedly been cremated by the police two years on, but the dead man's father has cried foul.

Officials at the Ahraula village police station late Tuesday night cremated the skeleton of 22-year-old Chukkan Nishad, who went missing July 21, 2007.

Sadharan Nishad, Chukkan's father, alleged that the police threatened the family before cremating his son's skeleton.

'The cops came to us Tuesday night and forcibly took my signature on a blank paper. They also threatened us of dire consequences if we tried to approach senior officials or the media again,' Nishad said.

While Chukkan's body was recovered from a field near his house July 25, 2007, four days after he went missing, his skeleton had been lying on the terrace of the police station for the past two years despite his parents' repeated efforts to retrieve it and perform his last rites.

The father said they wanted to file a complaint the day Chukkan went missing but they were driven out by the policemen.

'We went to the police to lodge a missing person complaint the same day (July 21). But the cops chased us out of the police station. When his body was recovered, the cops brought it to the Ahraula police station and since then we were waiting to get it back,' Nishad said.

The police said that a DNA test would be conducted to ascertain the identity of the victim as the body was badly decomposed.

'Yesterday, they removed the skeleton from the terrace and we saw it was kept in a sack in the backyard of the police station. Today (Wednesday), when we went there, a constable told us that it has been cremated,' Nishad claimed.

Inspector Ram Shabd, in charge of the Ahraula police station, refused to comment on the matter.

Deputy Inspector General of Azamgarh K.K. Tripathi, however, said a probe has been ordered into the incident.

'An inquiry has been ordered into the matter and those found guilty will be punished,' Tripathi told over phone.