Two young women accused of theft died in police custody under mysterious circumstances on Tuesday, prompting an inquiry as senior police leadership attributes the deaths to a drug overdose.
The Township police initially took both women into custody after a resident, Zeeshan Latif, accused them of stealing gold ornaments and Rs 5,000 in cash from his home.
According to the FIR [First Information Report], the women entered the residence and asked Latif’s wife for water. When the complainant’s wife went to fetch it, the suspects took the valuables.
Latif stated that local residents caught the women red-handed, thrashed them, and handed them over to the police. The Township police registered the FIR against the suspects around 4:50 PM.
To hand her over to female police officials for further investigation, officials transferred one suspect to the Lytton Road police station. The second suspect remained at the Township police station.
The health condition of both suspects worsened while in custody. According to Operations Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Faisal Kamran, one suspect fainted inside the Township police station while the other fainted at the Lytton Road police station.
Police personnel shifted both women to separate hospitals, where attending doctors declared them dead on arrival.
A spokesperson for the investigation police clarified late Tuesday that the women died while in the custody of the operations wing police, citing call records made by operations wing officials to Rescue 1122 to transport the women to medical facilities.
DIG Kamran strongly denied allegations that police officials had beaten up, tortured, or treated the women harshly in custody. “As per initial inquiry reports, both were chronic drug addicts,” Kamran stated.
The DIG claimed a probable drug overdose compromised the health of the women by the time locals handed them over to the operations police. He added that the police obtained video clips showing the women after local residents caught them, as well as video recording of a police official questioning one of the suspects. “The video shows the woman asking the policeman to arrange narcotics for her,” Kamran said.
The DIG stated that the death of two women in custody must not be ignored under any circumstances and requires a high-level inquiry to dig out the facts.
Police officials remain in direct contact with doctors at the concerned hospitals to conduct postmortem examinations as soon as possible, with further details to be shared with the media once investigations conclude.
