The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday arrested a police officer in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore district in connection with the alleged custodial torture and death of an Adivasi man in July 2024, The Hindu reported.

This came a day after the Supreme Court warned that it would initiate contempt proceedings against officials of the CBI and the Madhya Pradesh government if they failed to arrest the two police officers accused in the death of 25-year-old Deva Pardhi by October 7.

Prashant Shrivastava, CBI additional superintendent of police in Indore, told The Hindu on Saturday that Uttam Singh Kushwaha, who was an assistant sub-inspector at the time when the alleged incident took place at Myana Police Station in Guna district, was arrested.

The CBI obtained Kushwaha’s custody for two days after producing him before a court, Shrivastava said. However, Sanjit Singh Mavai, who was in charge of the station at the time, was absconding, he added.

Shrivastava said that teams had been formed to trace Mavai.

In July 2024, ahead of his wedding, Deva Pardhi and his uncle Gangaram Pardhi were arrested on charges of theft. The family was later informed that Deva Pardhi had died in custody.

The police claimed Deva Pardhi had died of a heart attack, but the family alleged that both men were tortured in custody.

On May 15, the case was transferred to the CBI after the Supreme Court found that the Madhya Pradesh Police had not conducted the investigation “in a fair and transparent manner.”

The Supreme Court had directed at the time that if the officers were found responsible, they must be arrested within a month.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court, while hearing a contempt petition filed by Deva Pardhi’s mother, gave the central agency two days to arrest the police officers accused in the case.

The judges had also expressed anger at the agency’s explanation that Kushwaha and Mavai had been absconding since April.

On Friday, the bench said that the law cannot operate differently for those in uniform.

It noted that had the accused been private individuals, they would have been arrested within 15 days. “Because they are inspectors, you are finding it difficult to arrest them,” the Supreme Court added.

Earlier, the CBI had arrested two other police officers, Sub-Inspector Devraj Singh Parihar and Inspector Zubair Khan, along with another person, in the case, The Hindu reported. The central agency had also announced a Rs 2 lakh reward for information on Kushwaha and Mavai.

Also read: What the ‘custodial death’ of a man from the Pardhi community says about India’s policing practices

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