Prayagraj:
The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday took cognizance of a letter-petition addressed to the chief justice in relation to a missing BSc student of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), who allegedly disappeared from police custody six months ago. The court issued notices to the district magistrate and senior superintendent of police of Varanasi and asked the government lawyer to file a counter-affidavit by the next date of hearing, which is August 25.
A division bench of Chief Justice Govind Mathur and Justice Samit Gopal passed the order while taking cognizance of a letter written by Saurabh Tiwari, a lawyer. In the letter, Tiwari highlighted the plight of the father, who has been unable to establish contact with his son Shiv Kumar Trivedi, a second-year BSc student at the BHU, since February 12.
The letter states that Trivedi was picked up by the police from the MP Theatre ground of the BHU on February 12 and taken to the Lanka police station in Varanasi. Ever since, there has been no sign of the student, the letter says, adding that Trivedi’s father made several complaints to senior police officials of Varanasi, but in vain.
It has been alleged in the letter that Trivedi was picked up from the ground on the basis of a 112 call made by a fellow student, who reported that the former had fallen unconscious. However, the police kept denying that Trivedi was at the Lanka police station until the production of the 112 call details.
According to the letter, the police have now accepted that Trivedi was at the Lanka police station on the intervening night of February 12 and February 13. However, they have not given any further detail of the missing student. PTI
