Constable guns down man for jumping check post, flees spot; terminated from job, sent to jail

A trigger-happy constable shot dead an Apple executive for allegedly refusing to stop his car for checking near Gomti Nagar Extension under Gomti Nagar police station area in Lucknow on Saturday around 1.30 am. The shooter cop and his colleague were rounded up and taken into police custody. They were later summarily terminated from their services.

The incident kicked off a political controversy with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath telling the media that the accused constables had been dismissed from the police service. “The guilty will not be spared and, if needed, a CBI inquiry will be held,” Yogi added. But Opposition parties slammed the UP Government and demanded Yogi’s resignation. The incident also evoked protest from family members of the deceased with social media users pillorying the Lucknow police for its impertinent act and demanded ‘exacting action’ against constable Prashant Chaudhary constable and his colleague.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh asked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to take ‘effective’ action based on law in the case.

As per reports, Vivek Tiwari of Ganga Apartments (a residential apartment) in New Hyderabad Colony of Mahanagar, along with his friend Sana Khan, was going in their Mahendra XUV. Around 1.30 am on Saturday, when they reached near Maqdoompur police outpost, two constables, who were on a patrol duty, intercepted them asking Tiwari to stop the car. Fear gripped Tiwari when he saw the constables and tried to speed away at which constable Prashant Chaudhary fired at him while his colleague Sandeep Kumar incited him for the same.

The bullet fired from the service pistol first hit the front windscreen of the XUV and then it hit Vivek in his chin. As he slumped down in the vehicle, its accelerator probably was pressed by his foot and the car bolted out at a high speed hitting the bike of the accused constables and later rammed against one of the walls of the underpass. Both the constables guessed the wrong deed committed by them and they fled the scene leaving the victim in a pool of blood. Tiwari’s friend Sana stated that she began to cry while trying to seek help from truckers who were passing by. Meanwhile, a police team reached the spot and the victim was rushed to Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, where he was declared “brought dead”.

In a damage control attempt, the cops propagated conflicting information saying it was unclear that Tiwari died of gunshot or he suffered injuries after the car hit the wall of the underpass.

In his e-byte, SSP Kalanidhi Naithani parroted the narrative saying the man in the car attempted to run over the constables on being asked to stop. ‘Vivek drove the vehicle and run it over the bike of the constables and damaged it. The eyewitnesses to the incident said the police man fired at the car which hit the front windscreen and hit the man,’ he said. Later, the autopsy report ascertained that the victim suffered gunshot and he died of excessive bleeding.

Additional Director General of Police (law and order) Anand Kumar said the incident was unfortunate. ‘Prima facie, it’s a murder case,’ he added. ‘The principle of law is clear that the right of self-defence cannot exceed the perceived threat,’ the ADG said.

Senior police officials, including IG Sujit Pandey, inspected the scene and talked to pavement dwellers to get the sequence of incident.

The family put the corpse at an open space at Ganga Tower in New Hyderabad locality and refused to perform the last rites demanding the CM to visit their house and announce compensation and action against the errant cops. They demanded Rs 1 crore as compensation, a Government job and a CBI enquiry into the case.

This ratcheted up pressure on the Government with BJP Minister Ashutosh Tandon reaching the victim’s house to express his sympathy. The District Magistrate and the SSP too reached the victim’s house. The Minister and the officers struck a dialogue assuring the family of speedy action and compensation. But the two-hour-long talk with the family members failed to end the deadlock and the family members came out of the flat while raising anti-police and anti-Government slogans. They sat around the corpse put in an open space. The deadlock had not ended till the last reports came in.

The Government recommended an SIT probe which would be headed by IG, Lucknow Range, Sujit Pandey. Also the SSP assigned Mahanagar SHO Vikas Tripathi to probe into the case.