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The Allahabad High Court on Thursday, 10 February, ordered a second autopsy of the body of Altaf Miyan, whose death in police custody in Uttar Pradesh's Kasganj had elicited widespread outrage in November 2021.
The direction for a second post-mortem by AIIMS, Delhi was issued by a bench comprising of Justices Anjani Kumar Mishra and Deepak Verma, who had been hearing a petition moved by Altaf's father, Chand Miyan.
The plea had sought a CBI inquiry into the death, and a second autopsy that is conducted outside the Uttar Pradesh due to the alleged involvement of the UP police in the death.
The the entire process of unsealing and post-mortem and the subsequent sealing of the body will be recorded, as per the court's directions. The entire exercise should be completed within period of 10 days.
"This order has been passed because it is the case of the petitioner based upon photographs brought on record, wherein the deceased, Altaf is shown to have hung himself from a water pipe, which was installed only three feet above the ground of the toilet," the high court stated,
21-year-old Altaf, a resident of Nagla Sayyad Ahroli had been accused of running away with a girl. He had been taken to the Sadar police station for questioning on 8 November in Kasganj, where he had allegedly died while in custody.
Superintendent of Police Rohan Botre had narrated the account of the incident as follows:
The police has further claimed that the autopsy confirmed death by hanging.
However, the police's account has prompted a number of questions about the incident.
Visuals of the police station washroom where Altaf allegedly hung himself showed a pipe that is approximately 2 feet long, from which the police claim that Altaf had tied himself using the drawstrings of his jacket.
Moreover, the pipe is located on the wall at a point that would approximate half the height of the deceased.
Further, the pipe had reportedly come off from the wall, and had allegedly been fixed to its original position again. The occurrence has raised concerns of tampering with an active crime scene.
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