Kamal Ghorui
Agra: A 30-year-old man from Ghaziabad’s Loni, who was arrested for allegedly eloping with a 15-year-old girl after striking a friendship with her through a social media platform, was found “hanging” inside the washroom of a police thana at Chandpa in Hathras on Thursday night.After a departmental probe, SP Chiranjeev Nath Sinha on Friday suspended Chandpa SHO Shyam Singh and constable Lakhan Sirohi with “immediate effect”. According to police, the thana’s CCTV footage was taken away and further action will be based on the postmortem findings.The SP said Chandra Pal, 30, a daily wager, had come in contact with the Class XI student from Hathras via social media recently, which led to regular phone conversations between them. “On April 15, the man lured the girl from her home, following which her father filed a police complaint. She belongs to a different faith,” he added.An FIR under BNS section 137-2 (kidnapping) was registered against Pal, and acting on it, he was arrested from Loni on Thursday and the girl was rescued. She was later sent to a shelter home in Hathras, while Pal was taken to Chandpa for interrogation.In her statement, police claimed the minor told them that “she was forcibly taken away and denied any relationship with the man”. Cops are now probing all angles, including sexual assault.Speaking about the thana incident, Sinha added: “Around 9:50pm, Pal wanted to use the washroom and was escorted by a constable. When he did not come out after about 15 minutes, the constable checked inside and found him hanging — using an ‘angocha’ (thin towel) — from a ventilation duct. Doctors declared him ‘brought dead’ at the district hospital.”Meanwhile, Pal’s cousin, Arun Kumar, said, “A police team took him from Loni to Chandpa thana in Hathras. He was healthy and doing well. We waited to hear from cops, and don’t know what exactly happened at night in that thana. Police later informed us that he killed himself. After the postmortem, the family took the body for cremation. We’re all in shock.”(Inputs from Sumit Sharma in Hathras)
