Dalit teenager accused of pigeon theft found dead in Haryana

One day after Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said that crimes like the murder of Dalit children at Sunped village in Faridabad won’t happen again as the state is a ‘peaceful’ one, a 15-year-old Dalit boy, who was accused of stealing a pigeon, was found dead under mysterious circumstances in Haryana’s Gohana town.

According to the police, the teenager was found dead at his home in Gohana town in Sonepat district on Friday, though the boy’s family approached the police alleging that he died while in police custody.

Some members of the Gadia lohar (ironsmith) community had on Thursday approached the Sonepat police charging the boy with the theft of a pigeon and demanded appropriate action against him, Superintendent of Police, Sonepat, Abhishek Garg said.

However, the SP said the boy’s family has alleged that the teenager had been brought to the police station at Gohana by the Lohars and that he died while in police custody.

Meanwhile, the boy’s family on Friday clashed with the police in Gohana and placed the body on the road, demanding action against the “erring cops”.

Heavy police had been deployed in the area to control the situation.

“According to the preliminary investigations in the case, the boy was found dead at his home today. There was a mark around his neck. A postmortem examination is underway and once its report comes, we can arrive at the conclusion how he died,” Garg said over the phone.

Responding to the allegations that he died in police custody, he said, “We have registered a case and will add appropriate sections after the post-mortem report comes. As far as his family’s allegations are concerned, we will take appropriate action if any such thing is found to be true during our investigations.”