It took the family of Aakash Kumar over a month to get an FIR filed after he was found dead on the train tracks between Anand Vihar in Delhi and Chandar Nagar in Ghaziabad on 12 September, in a case that brings out gross negligence on the part of the Ghaziabad police. The police maintained throughout that Aakash’s death was caused by a train accident, despite being provided with evidence to the contrary by the family members of the deceased. It could be a coincidence that the police filed a complaint only after they realised that the family had approached the media and when The Sunday Guardian started calling various officers for information about the case.
Aakash Kumar, son of Lakhmi Chand, a milkman, who stays in Maharajpur in Ghaziabad, was found dead after his parents had been allegedly threatened by Jitu on the evening of 11 September. Jitu was an acquaintance of Aakash. “It was after 9.30 pm, we usually sit outside in the lane after dinner. Jitu came to us at that time; he was in a rage and seemed drunk. After shouting obscenities at us, he told me to control my son or else he would kill him,” alleged Chand, who added that he threatened him with police action.
The next morning Chand was informed about his son’s body being found on the railway tracks. The police, during the seven days it took the post mortem report to be released, told Aakash’s family that they could not write an FIR until the post mortem report came out. When the report was released seven days later, they said that there was no case as death was caused in a train accident. The FIR, which was finally filed on Friday, 21 October, says that a family acquaintance told Chand on the morning of 12 September that he saw Aakash in the company of the accused Jitu with two others, Ashish and Ravi around 2.30 am near the Ambedkar statue at Maharjpur Chauraha. That was the last time Aakash was seen by anyone. The post-mortem report cites the time of death between 2-3 a.m. on 12 September and the cause of death as shock and haemorrhage—a result of ante-mortem injuries.
According to the application Chand submitted to the police, Aakash had loaned Jitu an amount of Rs 3,500, which he refused to return. The Sunday Guardian talked to two of Chand’s neighbours. They too claimed, on the condition of anonymity, that Chand was indeed threatened by Jitu. “He (the accused) lives nearby and we saw him enter the lane and walk towards Aakash’s parent’s house. He seemed drunk and was using abusive language. He said that he would kill Aakash if he didn’t watch out,” alleged Aakash’s neighbours. The neighbours said that the police had detained the three accused aged between 18 and 20 years for three days and then released them.
Lakhmi Chand, after the police dismissed the incident as an accident, visited the three stations near the place where Aakash’s body was found: Anand Vihar, Sahibabad and Chander Nagar. Neither of the stations had any record of an accident on 12 September. The Link Road police station, Maharajpur told Lakhmi Chand that the railway stations might have forgotten to record the accident. When contacted by The Sunday Guardian, the SHO of the Link Road police station, Raj Kumar Yadav, first said that the case would come under the Railway Police as the body was found on the railway tracks. He later said that it was a case of train accident. When asked about the threats that Chand had received and also the condition Aakash’s body was found in, Yadav said, “I have interrogated 30 people and have concluded that this is a train accident.” He described the allegation that the police station had detained three persons—who have been named in Friday’s FIR—for three days and then set them free, as bogus. Aakash’s family members are alleging a cover-up in the case by the police station.
On 21 October, Chand and his sister Kavita, along with other family members, finally got to meet the new SSP of Ghaziabad, Deepak Kumar, who after reading the family’s application ordered the Link Road police station to look into the matter immediately.
The previous SSP, K.S. Emmanuel, now the DIG, Meerut range, was the presiding SSP when this case took place in September. He got a promotion and moved to Meerut in the second week of October. On being asked if he was cognizant of this case he said that he was unaware of these facts. SSI Bijendar Singh, who is currently in-charge of the Link Road police station, confirmed that an FIR was filed on Friday in the case of “Aakash Kumar aka Pintu, resident of Amdebkar basti, Maharajpur, Ghaziabad”. “We have filed the case today and the investigation will ensue now,” he said.