A candle light vigil is held for Udit Gayaki in Bhopal
BHOPAL: A 21-year-old BTech graduate out partying with friends in a car in Bhopal died after alleged thrashing by two constables who turned on the group on the pretext of traffic rule violations.Constables Santosh Bamnia and Saurabh Arya have been booked, arrested and sent to jail over the alleged fatal assault on Udit Gayaki in the early hours of October 10 in Piplani’s Indrapuri area.”Nothing can compensate for my loss. I have lost my only child. I demand a CBI inquiry and the harshest punishment for the policemen. They should be hanged,” Udit’s father Rajkumar Gayaki, an assistant engineer in the electricity department, said Monday as the family prepared for “Teesra (third-day ritual)” of their son.The two constables approached Udit and his friends when they had parked the car along a road in Indrapuri. The cops allegedly entered the car, abused them, and when Udit tried to flee, chased him and beat him with batons. Udit’s friends claimed the constables later demanded Rs 10,000 to “settle” the matter.After the assault, Udit complained of uneasiness and threw up multiple times while being driven around by the friends. He collapsed around 3.30 am, after which he was rushed to AIIMS Bhopal, where doctors there declared him “brought dead” around 4 am. The post-mortem report mentions “pancreatic haemorrhage due to blunt trauma” as the cause of death.Rajkumar expressed dissatisfaction with the FIR. “It states only ‘mild force’ was used. If it was mild, how did my son die? The FIR doesn’t mention that the policemen demanded money. They asked for money even after bashing him mercilessly. I wish they had just taken the money and spared my son’s life,” Rajkumar said. He added CCTV footage shows Udit being beaten by the constables. Udit’s mother has not spoken since learning of his death.Udit’s grandfather BR Gavande said the techie’s brother-in-law was a DSP but he never used this connection to take any “unfair advantage”. “Why would such a boy misbehave with cops?” he asked.
