‘Please don’t call me… they are beating me up’: How Patna High Court scrutiny keeps focus on missing Dalit man

It was Sanoj Kumar’s last call on August 13 that chilled the family to the bone. Sanoj, a mason in Bihar’s Bhojpur, had allegedly told them a few minutes earlier that he had been detained during an excise raid near Bihiya in Bhojpur, and the family had been trying to get in touch with him. Then the call allegedly came. “Please don’t call me… the [excise] police are beating me up,” Sanoj had wailed from the other side.

For 10 months now, the 31-year-old Dalit man has been missing, with investigators saying he was among the three people detained during an excise raid near an illegal watering hole. Earlier this week, five government officials and two of their van drivers were arrested over the disappearance — a development that came after sustained monitoring by the Patna High Court.

Those arrested are Excise Assistant Sub-Inspectors Dheeraj Kumar and Raj Kumar, Home Guards Dharmendra Paswan, Umesh Kumar Yadav and Raju Kumar Singh, and two private drivers, Surendra Kumar Singh and Vikash Kumar. The police claimed the arrests were made after their involvement emerged during the investigation.

“Seven had been remanded to judicial custody,” Bhojpur Superintendent of Police Raj told The Indian Express, adding that Sanoj has yet to be traced.

The family fear that Sanoj was killed in custody. “For days, whenever we heard that an unidentified body had been found, we rushed there immediately, no matter the time. We went everywhere, from police stations to the State Human Rights Commission and the National Human Rights Commission, from Ara to Chapra, Patna, Buxar and Aurangabad, hoping to find him,” his youngest brother, Rakesh Kumar, said.

Following their arrest, all five officials have been suspended pending inquiry, officials said.

What happened that day

The second of the four children, Sanoj was a construction worker in Dubai until late 2024, when he decided to take up work locally to stay home with his wife and three-year-old son. His wife was expecting their second child when he disappeared.

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That day, Sanoj called the family around 6 pm to say he would be home soon. “He said ‘don’t buy babu (Sanoj’s son) anything, I’ll get something’,” Sanoj’s father, Gauri Shankar Ram, told The Indian Express. “I told him to come home soon.”

Sometime later, Sanoj called the family to say he had been detained. “While I was still asking for more details, the call was cut,” his brother Rakesh said.

Soon afterwards, Sanoj’s elder brother Manoj Kumar allegedly called him. “This time he answered crying and asked me to stop calling,” he said. “The next time I called, his phone was switched off.”

At 12 am that night, after hours of looking for him, the family first approached the Jagdishpur Excise police station, but were dismissed that day. “On the second day, they said nobody had been detained,” brother Niranjan said. “When we went back the third time, we were told that three people had been detained, but one escaped.”

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The family alleges they found his motorcycle near the site of the alleged raid. After failing to trace him for more than 24 hours, Gauri Shankar Ram lodged a missing person’s report at Bihiya police station on August 14.

As the investigation progressed slowly, the family approached the Patna High Court on April 17.

What High Court said

During its hearings on a habeas corpus petition filed by Sanoj’s father, Gauri Shankar Ram, a Division Bench of Justice Rajeev Ranjan Prasad and Justice Kumar Manish reprimanded the police, saying the pace of the investigation gave the impression that investigators were “only helping the accused persons”.

On June 3, the court said: “We place on record our displeasure on the manner in which the first IO. and then the SHO of the Jagdishpur Police Station have conducted the investigation. They are moving slowly and slowly for some time, giving an impression to this court that they are only helping the accused persons as even when they have been found suspects, the Investigating Agency is not able to find out the truth from them,” the court said.

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The reprimand came after investigators told the court that the location of one of the two mobile phones that Sanoj was carrying the day he disappeared showed the tower location of the Jagdishpur Excise police station. During questioning, two of the suspects, ASIs Raj Kumar and Dheeraj Kumar Singh, also kept changing their statements, first denying the raid and then admitting that three people had been detained without mentioning Sanoj.

They also allegedly told the police that “one opened the rear compartment and escaped”. About the phone, the police claimed the officials later admitted to retaining Sanoj’s mobile phone.

The two others detained along with Sanoj, Manish Yadav and Mira Yadav, were released later and have since been made witnesses in the case.

In its hearing on July 2, the court ordered protection for the two witnesses after police said they were “perhaps afraid of coming out with the truth”. It recorded the submission of Sanoj’s father, Gauri Shankar Ram, that several people had approached him to “cover up” the case, directed his protection, and asked police to investigate the allegations.

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In verbal observations, the court said that CCTV footage of the raid showed that the vehicle used “appeared to be a fully enclosed Bolero” and that “it would not have been possible for someone to jump out unless the backside door is opened”.

The court further recorded the SP’s submission that he believed the arrested officials were “not disclosing the complete truth” and that police would seek their custodial remand for further interrogation.

Mithilesh Kumar Rai, the advocate for the petitioners, said the family feared Sanoj could have been killed and his body disposed of. The case will now be heard on July 7.

Meanwhile, on the high court’s direction, Bhojpur Police has provided security to Sanoj’s family. As they wait for news, their loss is incalculable: after Sanoj’s disappearance, his wife miscarried, the family said. “She was devastated and stopped eating,” Sanoj’s mother, Kalawati Devi, said.

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As they await news, another worry looms: the Rs 50,000 loan Sanoj had taken from moneylenders just before he went missing to build a house. “Instalments still have to be paid. The lenders won’t understand our helplessness. We have no choice but to return to work. Because life doesn’t stop,” brother Rakesh said.