‘Fake encounter’ snowballs into row
KANPUR: An alleged case of fake encounter of a man accused of undertaking illegal sand mining in Jhansi on Sunday night snowballed into a controversy on Monday after the kin of the deceased refused to accept the body for cremation and political parties announced to visit the village.
Pushpendra Yadav was shot dead in an encounter on Sunday. His truck was seized by the Moth police last week. On Friday night, Pushpendra had called up station house officer, Moth, Dharmendra Singh Chauhan to get his truck released.
“He was to meet the SHO at the highway,” said ADG Kanpur zone Prem Prakash.
However, the SHO told official that Pushpendra and his two accomplices fired at him before taking away his car and other belongings.
The SHO claimed the bullet fired by Pushpendra scraped his cheeks.
SP rural Jhansi Rahul Mithas said the police teams constituted following this incident tracked Pushpendra’s car on early Sunday morning.
In the exchange of fire, Pushpendra was killed while two others managed to escape, he said.
According to autopsy report, Pushpendra was shot in the head once and four times in the back.
With his wife Shivangi Yadav and other family members alleging that he was killed in a fake encounter, district magistrate Shiv Sahay Awasthi has ordered a magisterial inquiry.
“ADM city B Prasad will conduct the inquiry and anyone who is found guilty would be punished,” he said.
Family members, however, refused to accept his body for cremation.
The body is kept in a police van for the last 24 hours in middle of Kurgawan village amid demand for arrest of SHO Chauhan.
The death acquired political overtones after SP president Akhilesh Yadav announced to visit the family on October 9.
The party’s Rajya sabha member Dr Chandrapal Yadav has demanded registration of murder case against the policemen.
Former union minister and Congress leader Pradeep Jain Aditya met DIG Jhansi and submitted a memorandum seeking a CBI probe into the encounter.
A seven-member delegation of Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia), led by Shivpal Singh Yadav has also announced to visit Kurgawan on Tuesday.
SP MP Chandrapal Yadav has alleged that Pushpendra was killed over a dispute involving a financial transaction with the SHO.
“The police story is riddled with loopholes. Why the SHO was speaking to him over phone and agreed to meet him on the highway? If Pushpendra had looted his car after shooting him why an immediately other police stations were not informed, the car would have been recovered in minutes,” he said.
“The SP will continue to protest the killing till a case is registered,” he said.
Meanwhile, an uneasy calm prevailed in Kurgaon where the villagers, including large number of women, were on the streets.
The ADG said impartial investigations would be conducted into the killing.