Bombay high court dismisses plea alleging custodial death of taxi driver’s son in 2019 | Mumbai News
Mumbai: Bombay high court has dismissed a petition filed by two persons in 2020, including taxi driver Hriday Singh, who alleged his son, Vijay Singh (26), died because of police brutality in “illegal custody” in Oct 2019 at the Wadala Truck Terminus police station, and sought action against them. The HC said it found the allegations against police to be “unsustainable” and accepted a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) report that gave the police a clean chit and cleared a couple with whom the victim allegedly had a scuffle for beating him.The HC last Sept transferred the probe to CBI. In its judgment made available on Wednesday, Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande said the CBI “has now concluded in no uncertain terms that the death… did not occur on account of the beating either by the police… and that he died due to a sudden heart attack.”Wadala Truck Terminus police picked up Singh in Oct 2019 over a skirmish that he and two others allegedly had with a couple. The couple alleged that three men sexually harassed the woman. One of the two men, Nirmal Singh, who claimed he was an eyewitness to the beating, was the second petitioner.Advocate Vinay Nair for Singh’s father argued that his son died “as a result of a cruel assault and inhuman treatment by a police official of this station”.The HC earlier formulated 10 factors for CBI to consider in its probe.The March 13 judgment authored by Justice Dangre observed that the issue before it stood concluded as CBI took all efforts to ascertain whether the youth was beaten by the police in custody. “From the very beginning, the answer to the said question is in the negative,” the HC observed. CBI counsel Kuldeep Patil said CBI, before concluding, also relied on an expert AIIMS, New Delhi, report which unanimously, in a 6-doctor report, said the death was due to a natural and sudden heart attack.Nair contended that all relevant papers were not forwarded to AIIMS. The HC disagreed and observed that documents sent on Feb 3, 2026, included the post-mortem reports, histopathology reports, PM video, inquest proceedings and replies from Forensic Toxicology at KEM Hospital and Grant Medical College, as well as the report of the magistrate’s inquiry in the accidental death report registered with Wadala police station.The HC found no scope to doubt the CBI report and, observing its limited scope when no cognisable offence was made out, dismissed the plea against the police personnel.
