Gallows for former ACP over custody torture

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Friday awarded death penalty to a former assistant commissioner of police for torturing two persons to death in judicial custody 19 years ago. Terming the offence as ‘rarest of rare’, additional sessions judge Rajinder Kumar ordered that accused Rishi Prakash Tyagi be hanged till death.

The court found him guilty under sections 302 (murder), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 50,000 on Tyagi for causing death of Mahender Kumar and Ram Kumar in Vivek Vihar Police station in east Delhi in 1987. The court also rejected Tyagi’s mercy plea on the ground that he was a 65-year-old man and already undergone two cardiac surgeries.

Two close associates of Tyagi, former ACP KP Singh and a sub-inspector Tej Singh, though absolved of the murder charges were awarded one and three years of rigorous imprisonment respectively for protecting accused Tyagi and destruction of evidence. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 and Rs 30,000 respectively on KP Singh and Tej Singh.

Holding KP Singh and Tej Singh guilty of conniving with Tyagi, the judge observed, “it is evident that both of them did not obey directions of law intending to save his fellow policeman from legal punishment.”

As per the prosecution, the victims, during the Janmasthami celebrations on August 16, 1987, entered into a scuffle with a constable posted at Circular Road, Vivek Vihar in east Delhi. Later a case of assaulting a policeman was lodged against them and for forcing their surrender the cops arrested their family members and neighbours.

Subsequently both victims were taken into custody and policemen at the instance of convict Tyagi subjected them to torture following which they died at a hospital.