Bhopal, Oct 12 : In a swift crackdown fuelled by viral CCTV evidence and seething public outrage, Bhopal authorities arrested constables Santosh Bamaniya and Saurabh Arya on the charges of thrashing 22-year-old B.Tech student Udit Gayki to death.

In a chilling display of alleged police misconduct, the 22-year-old engineering student, Udit Gayki, the brother-in-law of Balaghat Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Chetan Adlak, was brutally beaten to death by two constables in Bhopal's Indrapuri area late Thursday night.

The incident, captured on CCTV footage that has since gone viral, has ignited widespread outrage over custodial violence and corruption within the ranks of the Madhya Pradesh Police.

The Madhya Pradesh Home Department on its social media handle X posted, "In Madhya Pradesh, the law applies equally to all, ensuring justice without exception. Following the directives of Chief Minister Dr Mohan Yadav, a murder case has been registered against two policemen in connection with the death of a man in Bhopal due to a brutal police assault. Authorities have assured that action is certain against the culprits, regardless of their position."

The duo, previously suspended upon the footage's emergence, now faces a stringent murder charge under Sections 103(1), 115(2), and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, invoking common intention and voluntarily causing grievous hurt.

They are slated for a court appearance on Sunday via a special requisition, as investigations intensify with witness testimonies and digital forensics.

Deputy Commissioner of Zone-2 Vivek Singh briefed reporters on the probe's breakthroughs, revealing, "As per investigations by ASI (assistant sub-inspector) Ajay Vajpayee, Udit and his friends were sitting in a red car in Indrapuri when the two patrolling policemen approached. The CCTV camera footage showed constable Saurabh Arya hitting Udit on the leg with a baton while running after him."

The preliminary autopsy confirmed death from "traumatic haemorrhagic pancreatitis as a result of blunt trauma," underscoring the assault's lethality with multiple "tram track" injuries from lathi blows.

An ACP-led inquiry is delving into call detail records and eyewitness accounts to unravel the full brutality.

According to eyewitness accounts from Udit's friends, the group was returning from a casual party when their vehicle was intercepted by patrolling constables near C-Sector, Indrapuri, under the Piplani police station jurisdiction.

The constables allegedly stripped Udit of his shirt and repeatedly struck him with sticks against a wall, inflicting severe internal injuries. Udit, a final-year BTech student at Technocrats Institute of Technology (TIT) College in Bhopal, was rushed to AIIMS, Bhopal by his friends but succumbed to his injuries en route or upon arrival, with doctors declaring him dead on the spot.

A preliminary post-mortem examination report revealed that the cause of death was a haemorrhage in the pancreas, resulting from blunt force trauma to the abdomen, along with 16 external injuries across his body. The footage, which shows one constable restraining Udit while the other delivers repeated blows with a lathi, has been described as "horrifying" by netizens and activists alike.

/IANS