'Govt should take strict action against guilty policemen': Mayawati on death of Dalit jail inmate in Firozabad

Lucknow: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati on Saturday demanded strict action against the "guilty policemen" while reacting to the death of a Dalit jail inmate in Uttar Pradesh's Firozabad district.

"The way a Dalit prisoner was killed in the jail in Firozabad district of UP. It is very sad. The government should take strict action against the guilty policemen and also provide full help to the victim's family," she said in a post on X.

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister also demanded that the police should immediately release the "innocent people who raised their voice against this incident" and also "withdraw the case filed against them".

Mayawati's remarks came a day after a 25-year-old jail inmate died in the district hospital where he was admitted after his condition deteriorated.

Superintendent of Police Saurabh Dixit on Friday said the deceased, Akash, was taken into custody on Wednesday and a stolen motorcycle was seized from him. A case was later registered against him.

Akash was sent to judicial custody and lodged in the Firozabad district jail. On Thursday night, when his condition deteriorated, he was admitted to the district jail hospital where he died during treatment on Friday, Dixit said.

As the body was being taken home by the man’s family after post-mortem late Friday evening, the local people stopped the ambulance at an intersection near the deceased’s house in the Nagla Pachiya area and staged a protest, the SP said.

They shouted slogans against the police, pelted stones at the police personnel and their vehicles and also indulged in arson. The crowd also set a motorcycle on fire, he added.

As the situation deteriorated, the police resorted to mild force to remove the people from the spot.