Farmer's alleged custodial death to be probed: Mandsaur SP

Police had apprehended Ghanshyam Dhakad, a farmer who died two days ago allegedly in their custody, in an injured condition while he along with others was trying to uproot a railway track during the farmers' agitation, a senior police official said today.
After he was held, he was taken to government-run Maharaja Yashwant Rao hospital in Indore, Mandsaur Superintendent of Police Manoj Kumar Singh.
Hospital sources, however, said the farmer was brought there as an "unidentified man" and the doctors had said he was "brought dead".
Singh said that the matter would be probed and if anyone found guilty, appropriate action would be taken.

Dhakad (26) was detained by the police on June 8 when he and six other agitating farmers were trying to uproot a rail track, the SP said.
He said as per his information, Dhakad was already injured so the policemen took him to a hospital in Indore for treatment.

"I say this with complete responsibility that no fact about the death of the farmer will be hidden. We will get the entire episode probed and if anyone is found guilty, be it a policeman, appropriate legal action would be taken against that person," he said.
To a query about Dhakad being admitted to the hospital as an unidentified person, the SP said, "probably the policemen who took him (Dhakad) to the hospital did not know his name then."

Notably, the Mandsaur-Neemuch area, epicentre of the current waive of farmers' protest in Madhya Pradesh, is a region of opium production.
To a query on opium mafia's link to the unrest, the SP said, "There is no denying of the possibility of the opium mafia fanning this violent protest in order to facilitate smuggling of their produce."
Meanwhile, the last rites of Dhakad were performed at his native Badavan village in the violence-hit Mandsaur district.
The villagers had alleged that he was beaten up by policemen, which led to his death.
Mandsaur district collector O P Shrivastava said the kin of Dhakad would be given Rs 1 crore as compensation and a member of his family would be given a government job, as announced by the state government for the five other victims.

"The same compensation and a government job will be given to Dhakad's family as well," he said.