Retired police officers have raised police “lapses” in investigating the death of Anis Khan, student leader in West Bengal, saying standards operating procedures (SOPs) may not have been initially followed.
Former Director General of Police Bhupendra Singh and former Inspector General of Police Pankaj Dutta and other retired senior cops told Indian Express that the “lapses” as alleged by Anis’s family will undermine the police integrity.
Anis’s family has alleged that the Amta police delayed their visit to the murder scene; got the first post-mortem done in their absence; did not promptly record the statements of eyewitnesses.
“The first police mistake was delay in reaching the PO (place of occurrence). The incident… took place around 2 am. But the police reached the house after a gap of seven to eight hours. It is a serious lapse,” former Inspector General of Police Pankaj Dutta said to Indian Express.
“The entire PO… wasn’t cordoned off with a rope to prevent evidence being destroyed or distorted. Everything could have been photographed, which was apparently not done,” he added.
“In the absence any clear official statement, the credibility of the local police has been badly hit,” said Dutta.
Anis’s family has been demanding a CBI investigation.
Following a mass outrage against police and state government, the TMC government had a few days ago formed a special investigation team (SIT).
Anis Khan (28), a student leader who was an active of student protests in Aliah University, an autonomous state government university in New Town, West Bengal was thrown off the roof of his house and killed at 1am in Amta, on February 19.
Anis was a popular student leader and a member of Indian Secular Front (ISF), a political party formed in West Bengal in January 2021. He was a resident of Sarada South Khanpara village in Amta, Howrah district.
Salam Khan, father of the deceased, said to Maktoob that four people entered their house in police uniform at midnight. One of them had a gun with him. Three of the men went upstairs to look for Anis, while the fourth man [policeman] stood Salam at the gunpoint.
Anis Khan was sitting at his roof alone. Anis’s father says that he heard a scuffle; they pushed him [Anis] off the three-story roof and killed him. “The three of them came down and told the man in police uniform, Sir, let’s go. After that they left,” he added.
Salam is a farmer and his wife passed away six years ago. The family alleges that they reported the incident immediately to the Amta Police Station but police personnel had reached the spot only on Saturday morning.
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