On the night of January 21, a detainee died in the police department of the Sovetsky district of Makhachkala. Relatives reported torture. An investigation is underway into the case of “exceeding official authority, which negligently resulted in the death of the victim.”
Kurban Dalgatov, a 35-year-old insurance company employee and master of sports, had never come to the attention of law enforcement agencies before and had never complained about his health. He was not suspected of committing a serious crime; no one’s life depended on his testimony. His whole guilt was that he gave a ride to a friend of his, who turned out to be a participant in the quarrel that ended in shooting.
According to the police, the conflict occurred on January 20 at 19.25 near house 17 on Omarova Street in Makhachkala. Two men quarreled, after which one of them took out a traumatic pistol and shot his opponent several times in the legs. The victim was taken to the hospital, and the shooter fled the scene.
Police officers established that he left in the car of his friend Kurban Dalgatov. The latter's whereabouts were established and he was taken to the police department.
According to the official version of the police, “during the investigation, the citizen’s health worsened, he was provided with first aid. The police decided to take him to a medical facility. Despite the measures taken, doctors confirmed the man’s death. It was later established that the deceased suffered bodily injuries, which may have caused the death of the detainee.”
Dalgatov's death caused a great resonance. Relatives of the deceased stated that he died as a result of torture. At their suggestion, the media began to quote the conclusions of doctors: “Electric shocks were applied to the heart area, after loss of consciousness with breathing problems followed by cardiac fibrillation (suffocation), he died.”
The investigative department of the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case under Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (exceeding official powers, resulting in the death of the victim through negligence). Three police department operatives who interrogated Kurban Dalgatov were detained. According to unverified data, these are Lieutenant Islam Atavov, Lieutenant Magomed Malikov and Senior Lieutenant Magomedkamil Kurbanov. Meanwhile, there is information that about 10 people took part in the beating. The head of the Sovetsky District Department of Internal Affairs and his three deputies were suspended from work for the duration of an internal inspection.
Arsen Magomedov, who fired at Omarov on January 20, confessed to the police and brought his injury. The investigation wanted to take him into custody, but the court took into account that he was dependent on four children and disabled parents, and refused.
Nothing more has been reported about the shooter, but information has spread on social networks that both participants in the conflict are “guards of the Sultan-Tanker.” This is how they nicknamed Magomed-Sultan Magomedov in Dagestan, the former chairman of the regional parliament, the former president of the Anzhi football club, and now the republic’s secretary of state. He actually started his career at a gas station, hence the nickname.
Kurban Dalgatov is survived by three children. Both the Minister of Internal Affairs of Dagestan, Abdurashid Magomedov, and the head of the republic, Sergei Melikov, came to see his widow for condolences. At the same time, the Chernovik newspaper reported, citing Dalgatov’s friends, that his relatives were receiving threats and demands to remove stories about the incident from social networks. According to journalists, that night not only Dalgatov, but also several other witnesses to the shooting on Omarov Street were brought to the police department. They were taken to different offices and began to be beaten, demanding to know the name and location of the shooter. Obviously, Kurban Dalgatov, a master of sports in martial arts, resisted, this angered the police and they “overdid it.”
The case with Dalgatov is not the first suspicious death at the Sovetsky District Department of Internal Affairs. In December 2006, 22-year-old Nadyr Magomedov died here. His family was told that he died in the holding cell from heart failure, but an expert later found a piece of plastic bag in his throat. The case caused outrage in Makhachkala, a protest was held outside the police department demanding that those responsible for his death be punished, but the investigation led nowhere.
In 2017, 23-year-old Makhachkala resident Akhmad Shangereev, detained on suspicion of fighting, jumped out of the fourth floor window of this department. The jump resulted in severe injuries.

In 2021, in the building of the Sovetsky District Department of Internal Affairs, two National Guardsmen shot the former head of the village of Novokuli, 34-year-old Abakar Kaplanov. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the reason was a conflict over a disputed land plot.
On September 26, 2022, the human rights organization “Team Against Torture” published the report “The Arithmetic of Torture: North Caucasus Federal District.” According to human rights activists, over the 19 years of their work in the North Caucasus, they have never managed to bring security forces to justice under the criminal article of abuse of power. At the same time, they were able to obtain compensation for harm through the European Court for several victims of police violence. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan, where one of the copies of the report was sent, assured human rights activists that the department was working with personnel to prevent ill-treatment of detainees.