Jaipur: A case of murder has been lodged against six soldiers of the Indian army for allegedly thrashing a youth in Pokharan, Jaisalmer, who during the treatment succumbed to injuries on Monday. The relatives of the deceased are staging Dharna with the dead body in front of the Pokaran SDM office, demanding the arrest of the accused soldiers and compensation. While the army authorities have denied the charges saying that the youth was found injured by the soldiers in the prohibited area, they rushed him to the hospital.
The police said that the deceased Salman (24) and his relative Usman had entered the firing range in Pokharan on a motorcycle. Since it is a prohibited area, a patrolling vehicle of the army spotted them and to escape, they turned their bike towards the dunes.
The Station House Officer of Lathi police station, Ashok Kumar said the family of the deceased allege that the bike got stuck in dunes and Usman managed to run away from there but Salman was caught by the Jawans who thrashed him badly and later took him to a local hospital in a critical condition.
Kumar said a case under IPC section 302 was registered against six soldiers on Monday night. The body was handed over to relatives after post-mortem. “The death is due to head injury,” he added.
Now the family members of the deceased are staging Dharna with the dead body in front of the Pokaran SDM office, demanding the arrest of the accused soldiers, compensation of Rs 50 lakh and a government job for one family member. ‘
In the meantime, Defence spokesperson Lt Col Amitabh Sharma denied the charges. ‘Pokharan Field Firing Range near Jaisalmer is used for firing by Armed Forces and regularly patrolled by Army personnel from the security point of view. On 1 August at around 11.30 AM, during routine patrolling, two youths were spotted who had illegally ventured about five kilometres inside the ‘sensitive defence area’. When the Army patrol approached them, one individual fled and the other one was found lying injured. The patrolling party immediately evacuated the injured civilian to the nearest medical facility at the Government hospital, Lathi where he later succumbed. Both Army and Police are jointly investigating the case,’ said Sharma in the official statement of the army.
