The family of a trainee cop found dead after allegedly being bullied on a work placement claim he was “treated like a criminal” by officers.
Anugrah Abraham, 21, worked at Halifax Police station in West Yorkshire as part of a three-year apprenticeship degree at Leeds Trinity University before disappearing on March 3.
The student was then found in the woodlands near his home on the following day having tragically taken his own life.
His heartbroken family say Anugrah was treated like a 'criminal' by officers from another force who visited their home, and that he could have been saved if police 'had not wasted time' as his phone location was still active.
They claimed one police officer even remarked at one point it was 'too dark’ to undertake a search of the woods which contained ‘wild animals’ and ‘hedgehogs’ .
Initially the investigation into Anugrah’s case was to be handled by West Yorkshire Police. However, in a significant turn of events, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said it would take over the probe.
The watchdog said it had initially decided West Yorkshire Police should investigate Mr Abraham's death in line with normal procedures.
But the IOPC Regional Director Emily Barry said the organisation had "carefully considered" requests for them to become involved and had "determined it is now in the public interest for us to independently investigate these serious allegations".
The family of Anugrah, from Bury, Greater Manchester, told the Mirror: “We believe that there was a real chance that he could have been saved had GMP (Greater Manchester Police) not wasted time during the search.
“The police searched Anugrah’s room on three separate occasions during the night, finally taking away his police warrant card, his police phone and work notebooks, with no explanation as to why these were removed.
“It felt like they were treating Anugrah like a criminal.”
The family says that GMP who were managing the search did not put out details that Anugrah was missing on their social media pages.
They alleged that when they decided to look for Anugrah themselves they were told they couldn't.
“Our family later went back to the woods to search for themselves but were told they were not allowed to enter, despite the fact that another officer had said they could conduct their own search if they wished," they said.
“They were slow to initially respond to our reports that Anugrah was missing, and then wasted so much time before even venturing to the nearby woods where his car was parked.
“This was despite the fact that his phone had been giving out location updates suggesting that he was moving and still alive.
“It took another couple of hours of back and forth while we were told they were waiting for a dog squad to arrive.
“Eventually one officer and a single dog, hardly a squad, arrived at around 2am. The initial call from us was made at 11pm. There was just no sense of urgency even though we as a family were obviously frantic and GMP themselves had identified Anugrah as being high risk.”
The family claim they were told by a GMP officer that it was ‘too dark’ to search the woods because there were ‘wild animals’ and ‘hedgehogs in there.’
The family said: “The dog handler did a preliminary search of a nearby golf course but reported nothing but a late-night dog walker.
“The officer then said he wasn’t able to search the woods as ‘it was too dark’ and there were ‘wild animals’ and ‘hedgehogs’ in there.
“The contempt with which we were treated is sickening.”
Anugrah's family says he had grown up with dreams of joining one of the UK’s police forces, but after allegedly suffering bullying at a West Yorkshire Police station, his dreams turned into a nightmare.
They continued: “Anugrah had always loved the idea of public service, and dreamed of joining one of the forces.
“We recently found some doodles he had drawn of cartoon soldiers and other childhood heroes in an old diary of his.
“He believed in the idea of service and I think that’s what initially drew him to joining the police.
“That, and the promise of a degree and guaranteed job at the end of his training. It seemed like a “win/win.”
The 21-year-old’s family says that he continued to suffer bullying from colleagues and was often sent out on calls alone and was required to carry out a full body search of a corpse.
As well as facing difficult tasks early in his training, the family claims he was criticised and insulted in front of his colleagues.
Following an alleged litany of failures, Anugrah’s family says they were told that a body matching his description had been found but claim they were not allowed to see it for two days.
The family said: “It took another two agonising days before my family were finally able to positively identify Anugrah.”
After burying Anugrah two weeks ago, his family says they haven’t had time to “process or grieve his loss."
Following the decision the family said: “The thing we want to stress is that we do not want to be doing this.
“Our family has not been afforded the space to even begin to think about how we might heal from this because we’ve immediately had to take up this fight.
“We should not have been put in this position and although the IOPC’s revised decision is welcome, we are cognisant of the fact that this is far from over.
“This month will see the 30 year anniversary of Stephen Lawrence’s death, and last weekend marked 25 years since Christopher Alder’s death in police custody.
“Last month I was reading the news of the Casey Report, the findings of which confirmed what our communities have long known - that the Metropolitan Police are institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic.
“This is not just limited to the Met. When you look at the failings in my cousin’s case, they read like an extension of the same story.
“We know this story, but the hardest part is that even though you know it, you still can’t ever be prepared when it happens to you.”
A spokesperson for WYP said: “We welcome the decision by the IOPC to manage this as an independent investigation, in fact the Chief Constable had already written to them supporting the same course of action. We will of course fully cooperate with their investigation.”
DCI Dave Jones, of GMP's Professional Standards Branch, said: "On behalf of Greater Manchester Police, I send the sincerest condolences to the loved ones of Anugrah following his death in March 2023.
"In line with normal procedure, the incident response was referred to GMP’s Professional Standards Branch and the Independent Office of Police Conduct for review.
“The conclusion was that GMP had not caused or contributed to Anugrah's death and that the force had responded appropriately to the missing person's report.
"The force has not received a complaint in relation to this case. As inquest proceedings remain active, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time."
