Retired cop beaten to death in UP as locals watch, 7 held
Allahabad high court asks government for report on action by today
Three men beat a 70-year-old retired policeman to death over a property dispute in Allahabad’s Shivkuti area on Monday while passersby looked on, the police said on Tuesday. The murder was caught on a CCTV camera installed nearby.
Abdul Samad Khan was going on a bicycle when the three attacked him with sticks and rods. The assailants kept beating him until he lay motionless. The CCTV camera caught the three assaulting Khan. Several people passed by on foot, cycles and two-wheelers while Khan was being hit. No one came to his rescue.
The Allahabad high court took a suo motu cognizance of the murder and asked the government to inform it by Wednesday about the action taken. It questioned why no arrests had been made even though the CCTV footage of the incident was available.
Additional advocate general Manish Goel said the police were trying to trace all the accused.
Later, senior superintendent of police Nitin Tiwari said seven people, including the three attackers, had been arrested. He said 10 accused had been named in the FIR.
“The families of the victim and the accused are related to each other and are involved in a property dispute.
Junaid Kamal, a historysheeter, his brother, Javed, son, Shebu, and two other members of the family, Jhabbe and Naeem, have been named in the FIR,” police superintendent (city), Brijesh Srivastava, said.
Tiwari said Junaid’s sons, Yusuf and Shebu, and another relative, Ibne, seen attacking Khan in the CCTV footage, have been arrested. “Others who have been arrested include Junaid’s son, Razik, wife, Sana, and daughters, Hina and Mehendi,” he said.
Police said Junaid is a criminal with around 20 cases, including two related to attempted murders, pending against him.
Police said the CCTV footage showed Khan being hit 49 times in 90 seconds. A man in a red shirt is seen in the footage stopping and assaulting Khan first with a stick. Two men joined him in assaulting Khan, who soon stopped resisting. Khan took blows on his head, legs and hands while leaning against a wall.
In her complaint, Khan’s daughter, Sameeda, told the police that she rushed to the scene when informed about the attack and tried to lift her father, but failed. “Only after about 15 minutes when other family members, including my mother, Mohnisha, sister, Firdaus, and brother, Abdullah, reached the scene did we manage to take my father to the hospital,” she said.
Khan succumbed to his injuries at a hospital. The police said his post-mortem report said he had died of haemorrhage and shock.