Bathinda August 7:
            A youth, who had allegedly fled from police custody a few days, today surrendered before the district courts and charged the Rampura (Sadar) police with torturing him brutally during detention.
Showing burn marks over his body, Deepak Kumar of Rampura, the youth in question, complained before CJM AS Virk that some cops of Bathinda police wanted to push him in the trade of drug pedalling, which he had shun a long time back.
In a statement in the court, he said cops of Rampura (Sadar) police station intercepted him near Gill Kalan village, when he was riding his motorcycle along with a pillion rider, Binder Singh, on last Sunday. “They took us to the police station and after some time, they released Binder Singh but asked me to carry on drug pedalling for them on a commission basis, which I refused. Irked, they took me to a quarter and beat me up with lathis and belts. They crushed my finger and then branded me with hot iron rods,” he alleged.
He claimed, “Getting a chance, I fled from the illegal detention of the police on Monday night and reported the incident to my kin, who hid me in a secluded place. Meanwhile, the police slapped another case of fleeing from police custody on me.”Seeing the injuries on his body, the CJM directed the cops to get him medically examined to ascertain the injuries. The CJM said if doctors found it necessary, they could hospitalise him.
Meanwhile, the CJM ordered that after the medico-legal examination, the accused would be sent to jail and would remain in judicial custody till August 20. On the other hand, the SHO, Rampura police station, Harwinder Singh, refuted the allegations. He termed the statement of Deepak as a cooked up story to avoid criminal proceedings initiated against him for selling drugs and fleeing from police custody.
“He was intercepted on a tip-off. During the search, we found about 2,400 habit- forming capsules from him and lodged a case under the NDPS Act. Before we could produce him in the court, he fled from custody.” The SHO said the accused had earlier been facing charges under the NDPS Act in Moga.