SHO, constables suspended

GHAZIABAD: The UP Police on Thursday transferred the SHO and two constables of Pilkhuwa police station in Hapur to police lines for being insensitive towards an injured man who was attacked by a mob in Bajhera on June 18. The man, Qasim, later succumbed to injuries.

A photograph of a bleeding Qasim being dragged upside down by villagers, with the police personnel flanking them, had gone viral on social media, prodding the police brass to take disciplinary action against the men in the photograph.

Sankalp Sharma, superintendent of police, Hapur, said, “I have transferred to lines Ashwini Sharma, the SHO of Pilkhuwa police station, and the two constables seen in the photograph. The men showed insensitivity towards the injured man. An inquiry has been ordered.”

Police said the inquiry will be conducted by an officer of the rank of circle officer. If the policemen are found guilty, departmental action will follow.

On suspicion of cow slaughter, Qasim and Shamiuddin, a resident of Madhpura Mustafabad village, were severely beaten and dragged by the mob to a temple in Bajhera, nearly a kilometre away. There, they were beaten again by which time the police arrived. The mob also clicked pictures and shot videos in which villagers can be heard asking the men about cows.

“We apologise for the insensitive manner in which the victim was handled. The picture seems to have been taken when the police had reached the spot to shift the injured to a police vehicle — there was no ambulance available,” SP Sharma said.

Qasim was rushed in a police vehicle to the hospital, but he could not be saved. The postmortem report said he had sustained a minimum of 10 injuries, police said.

His liver had also ruptured, they said. Meanwhile, Shamiuddin continues to be critical at Dev Nandini Hospital in Hapur. “The doctors shifted him to ICU and told us that there is some problem in his kidneys,” Mohammad Yaseen, Shamiuddin’s brother, said.