A day after a 22-year-old man was
beaten to death during the lockdown in place for the novel coronavirus outbreak in Vile Parle area of Mumbai, Juhu police on Tuesday registered a case against eight people for the killing, an official said.
Raju Velu Devendra was killed in the early hours of Monday in Nehru Nagar area, and his brother Shankar had alleged he was beaten to death by police personnel enforcing the lockdown in the area.
However, police refuted the allegations and claimed the deceased was lynched by residents of the area while he was attempting a robbery.
"Our probe has found he was assaulted with iron rods by local residents when he went to commit a robbery. He died of the injuries. He was not beaten by police. We have registered a case against eight people for murder and rioting, and two have surrendered," said Senior Inspector Pandrinath Waval of Juhu police station.
The post-mortem report is awaited, he said.
The deceased's mother Poopathi Velu Devendra said Raju was killed by the police and said she would approach High Court to get justice.
"Police is calling it a case of rioting. How can so many people come out for rioting during a lockdown? I want the policemen responsible for my son's death to be punished. Police even took away CCTV equipment of the area to hide their crime," she said.
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