The dark side of police action during Patel community agitation is coming out and it is going to hurt the Gujarat government. The Gujarat High Court on Friday ordered the state criminal investigation department (CID) to investigate the custodial death of 32-year-old Patel youth Shwetang Patel and sought the progress report by Monday.

The court gave this order after going through the second postmortem report that suggested the youth died of shock and brain haemorrhage due to head injuries.

On Thursday, Prabhaben Patel of Bapunagar area in Ahmedabad had filed a petition alleging that her son Shwetang died due to injuries inflicted by police on Tuesday night when violence broke out following the detention of Hardik Patel, leader of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) in Ahmedabad by the police.

He was taken away by the police and kept in the lock up where he complaint of headache. The police took him to Shardaben Hospital where he was declared brought dead. The death escalated tension in the Patel-dominated Bapunagar area.

On Thursday, Justice J B Pardiwala had directed a fresh autopsy to be performed by a panel of four doctors, including the head of department of forensic science. Justice Pardiwala in his order stated, “the doctors have performed the postmortem and report reveals internal and external injuries…cause of death is shock and haemorrhage due to head injuries,” justice Pardiwala noted in the order.

He said that the report makes it clear that it is a case which should be investigated properly. He ordered the Bapunagar police inspector to lodge an FIR and hand over it to the CID. He said that the victim’s mother has alleged that police officers are responsible for the death and this angle should be  investigated.

When the petitioner’s lawyer requested the court to give the case to an IPS officer for investigation justice Pardiwala said, “There are many IPS officers across the country, what we need today is an honest officer. The officer concerned should be honest and should only concerned with the case.”