Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Sunday ordered a magisterial probe into the death of an accused in custody in the west Tripura police station. Sushanta Ghosh (38), a resident of Lankamura locality in Agartala, was arrested on Saturday in connection with an ATM hacking investigation.
The Crime Branch (CB), which is probing the hacking crime that siphoned off nearly ₹1 crore of over 60 SBI customers in November last, picked up Ghosh on the basis of confession of four foreign nationals — two Turks and two Bangladeshis. The CB had recently got custody of the foreign hackers from the West Bengal police who arrested them in Kolkata based on specific inputs received from their Tripura and Assam counterparts.
The hackers had used a “skimmer device” to snoop on the ATM pin numbers and other technical details of the customers. They then stole money from the SBI ATM counters at Battala, Indra Nagar and Kaman Chowmuhani as well as a booth of the State co-operative at the post office Chowmuhani in Agartala city.
The hackers were identified from the CCTV footage in the ATM booths.
An officer of the west Agartala police station, who requested anonymity, said Ghosh was found hanging in the toilet attached to the lockup before dawn on Sunday. He was taken to a hospital where doctors declared him brought dead, he added.
The father of the deceased alleged that the police had tortured him to death and hanged his body to stage “suicide drama”. Senior police officers visited the police station.
The State Home department in a statement said the Chief Minister had ordered a magisterial inquiry into the death. It said the government had been strict on matters related to law and order.
Angry residents staged a protest in Lankamura locality against the death. They attacked an on-duty special branch police constable who sustained head injuries.
