Haryana police suspended five CIA Hansi personnel after ganja-smuggling accused Tanup Dey, also called Rahul and Bapun, died in police custody in Odisha.[1][2] Hansi Superintendent of Police Vinod Kumar ordered the suspensions and a departmental inquiry into the death.[1][3][4] The inquiry will examine the circumstances and all related aspects of the incident.[1]

The case began on 27 March, when a CIA Hansi team arrested four men near the canal bridge on the Garhi to Bhatol road and seized 63 kg 700 grams of ganja from them.[1][3][5] Police identified the four as Rakesh and Manveer of Igrah in Jind district and Vinod and Ravindra of Puthhi.[1][3][4] Investigators said disclosure statements by Manveer and Vinod named Odisha resident Tanup Dey as the ganja supplier.[1][3][4] A CIA special team arrested Dey on 25 October with local police assistance and, after a court granted five days of transit remand, stayed with him in Odisha’s Malkangiri district.[1][3]

Police said Dey went to the washroom on the morning of 26 October and hanged himself there with a gamcha, a cotton cloth.[1][3] The escort team informed local police, who completed the required legal process under National Human Rights Commission guidelines.[1][4] The suspended men are Assistant Sub-Inspector Sammat, PSI Kapil, EHC Joginder, EHC Arjun and Constable Mukesh, who must report at the Hansi police lines during suspension.[1][3]

Police gave the four accused’s parentage as Rakesh son of Krishna, Manveer son of Jora, Vinod son of Lahna and Ravindra son of Kuldeep.[3]

The CIA-1 Hansi team had earlier arrested four men near a canal culvert on the Garhi-Bhatol road, police said.[4]

The Haryana team checked into a hotel in Malkangiri town instead of taking Dey to a local police station, a decision a protester questioned.[6] Dey’s family alleged that the Haryana police personnel beat him to death and tried to pass the death off as suicide.[7] Dey’s relatives and local residents gathered outside Malkangiri police station and demanded an impartial inquiry into his death.[7] Protesters blocked National Highway 326, which connects Asika in Odisha with Chinturu in Andhra Pradesh.[6] The Haryana police personnel who had come for Dey stayed inside the police station while protesters remained outside in the evening.[7] The Haryana team reached the area in a vehicle after a two-and-a-half-day journey and arrested Dey the next day.[6] The Hansi CIA in-charge said police from another state are not ordinarily permitted to keep an accused overnight at a local police station, which is why the team stayed in a hotel.[6] Malkangiri’s sub-divisional police officer said the Haryana team was staying at a hotel in Malkangiri town and was to leave for Haryana with Dey on Monday.[7] The Hansi CIA in-charge said Haryana police teams had visited Dey’s village three times before without finding him.[6]