In a major embarrassment to the city crime branch, an alleged weapons supplier in the actor
Salman Khan
firing case, Anuj Thapan (32), was found dead in the lockup of the police headquarters at Crawford Market on Wednesday.
A senior police officer said it is suspected that he died by suicide, but his family alleged foul play. Joint commissioner of police (crime) Lakhmi Gautam said the state CID will conduct an inquiry into the death.
The lockup, split across two floors of an old building on the premises, had 11 inmates, but crime branch officials said two of them — Vikas Gupta and Sagar Pal, who allegedly fired at Khan’s residence on April 14 — were taken away for interrogation on Wednesday.
They were mum on why Thapan alone was left behind. The second alleged guns supplier, Subhash Chander, is in judicial custody owing to an old injury. The building is covered by CCTV cameras.
It is the first case of
custodial death
inside the police headquarters in recent years.
Police said around 12.30pm, an officer in charge of the lockup was conducting his routine check on the first floor when another inmate told him that Thapan had gone to the toilet but hadn’t returned. The officer found Thapan hanging and rushed him to GT Hospital, where doctors declared him dead. His body was later sent to JJ Hospital for an autopsy. Late on Wednesday, police beefed up security at the lockup.
Police registered an accidental death report, and later, CID officials conducted a panchnama and secured the CCTV footage from the site.
Thapan, who hails from Punjab and was nabbed from the state on April 24, was accused along with Subhash Chander of supplying two country-made pistols and 40 cartridgesto Gupta and Pal in Mumbai on behalf of Anmol Bishnoi, the Canada-based cousin of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi. A lookout circular has been issued against Anmol and police are hoping to gain custody of Lawrence from the Gujarat jail he is lodged in.
Police fear Thapan’s death could dilute the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) charge that was invoked on Monday after the case was transferred from crime branch unit 9 to assistant commissioner of police S Nade. For an
MCOCA charge
to hold, police need to show that an accused had been named in another chargesheet within the last 10 years. Thapan has been named in three other unrelated offences in Punjab.
Police sources said they suspect that Thapan died by suicide because he was afraid that he would never be acquitted in an MCOCA case. His relatives rejected the claims. “Why would he kill himself? He was a healthy and hearty youngster working for a transporter. We suspect foul play,” one of them told TOI. Another source said Thapan had survived being shot at by Punjab police in 2018 and wouldn’t be afraid of a case. The family is likely to arrive in the city on Thursday to claim the body.
Advocate Vicky Sharma demanded a high-level inquiry into the death, and alleged that police could have tortured Thapan to quickly solve the high-profile celebrity case. “We will move high court to seek justice… Anuj had looked pale and scared when he was produced before the special MCOCA court on Monday.”
