Allahabad High Court denies bail to RPF personnel in Gonda custodial death case

The Allahabad High Court's Lucknow bench has denied anticipatory bail to two Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel accused in the custodial death of 35-year-old Sanjay Kumar Sonkar in Gonda, Uttar Pradesh.

Justice Manish Mathur remarked that while the COVID-19 pandemic has ended, “the plague of custodial deaths” does not appear to be abating. The court noted that in such cases, the burden of proof should ordinarily rest on police personnel to rebut allegations, a requirement the appellants failed to meet at this stage.

The incident stems from an investigation into the theft of six mustard oil tins from a goods train traveling from Gonda to Guwahati in late September 2025. According to the prosecution, Sonkar was taken by RPF personnel for questioning on November 4, 2025. His body was discovered in a mortuary the following morning. While the defense argued that injuries noted in the post-mortem report were not fatal, the court ruled that the validity of these claims would be determined by available evidence during the trial.