Kathmandu: A Japanese court on Friday ordered the Tokyo metropolitan government to pay damages of around 1 million yen ($7,500) over the 2017 death of a Nepali man who was forcibly restrained while in police custody, Kyodo News reported on Friday.
The Tokyo District Court determined that the authorities’ failure to provide Arjun Bahadur Singh with proper treatment was illegal and that his death was caused by him being inappropriately fitted with restraining devices at a police station in the capital’s Shinjuku Ward.
The Metropolitan Police Department is the local police force of Tokyo, and is under the control of the Tokyo Metropolitan Public Safety Commission.
Presiding Judge Chieko Fukuda ruled that Singh’s death could have been avoided if police had taken him to a hospital after removing his restraints and seeing that his hands were swollen and reddish-black, says the Kyodo News report.
Singh, then 39, was arrested on March 14, 2017, on suspicion of stealing lost property and was secured with restraining equipment that bound his hands to his stomach the following day, according to the ruling. Some of his restraints were removed, and he was escorted to the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office the same day, but he fell unconscious during interrogation. He was subsequently taken to a hospital, where he was confirmed dead.
The bereaved family had sought 61.82 million yen in damages from the metropolitan government and the state.
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