A year ago, a native of Telangana Sheikh Babu Sheikh of the age 62 was arrested after being suspected for theft, by the then Police Inspector (PI) of Fatehganj police station and policemen of Surveillance Squad. He was beaten to death and later his body was disposed of by the policemen.
Sheikh lived in Ahmedabad and used to sell shawls by visiting different cities every day. On December 20, 2019, he was visiting Vadodara with his son-in-law, Ibrahim Khan Kasim Khan Pathan and had breakfast near ST Depot. After that Sheikh parked his bicycle and went for selling. Meanwhile, the surveillance staff of Fatehganj Police Station detained Sheikh on the suspicion of burglary at the house of Satish Thakkar, a resident of TP-13 area. He was brought to the Fatehgunj police station and was strapped up to the chairs in a computer room and was also tortured physically and mentally and third-degree torture was used to make him confess to the theft, later he died.
Following the death of Sheikh, the then PI of Fatehganj Police Station, Dharmendrsinh Butaksinh Gohil, P.S.I. Dasharath Madhabhai Rabari and members of Surveillance Squad Pankaj Mawji, Yogendrasinh Jilansinh, Rajesh Savji and Hitesh Shambhubhai were all accused of disposing of the body and destroying the evidence. After investigating the incident, the ACP has registered a complaint against all of them at the Fatehganj police station.
Ibrahim Khan informed his brother-in-law when Sheikh did not return to ST Depot till late night. He filed a missing complaint at Sayajiganj Police Station. The ACP of Sayajiganj Police Station, Paresh Bhensania investigated the matter, but he was not found. A case was later filed by Ibrahim and his brother-in-law in the High Court and the Commissioner of Police.
Commissioner of Police, Anupam Sinh Gehlot ordered ACP G.S Patil to do a detailed inquiry in the matter. ACP Patil recorded the statements of various people and concluded that the PI of Fatehganj, Dharmendrasinh Gohil and his staff had detained and tortured Sheikh, mentally and physically. They had disposed of the body, destroyed all evidence, deleted the copy of the complaint and submitted a summary report.
Further investigation is going on in the matter.
