‘Cops supporting UP constable who shot dead Apple exec to face action’

IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE PROTESTING UP COPS, SOME PERSONNEL IN STATE POLICE TOO HAVE POSTED MESSAGES IN SUPPORT OF THE TWO ARRESTED CONSTABLES

DEHRADUN : Senior officials of the Uttarakhand police have taken note of some of the department’s personnel putting up posts on social media in support of their counterparts in Uttar Pradesh police accused of shooting dead a 38-year-old man in Lucknow on September 29.

Vivek Tiwari, working with Apple, was driving his car through Gomti Nagar area in Lucknow with a woman colleague on the night of September 28 when he was shot point-blank by a constable, Prashant Chaudhary, who claimed he had fired in self-defence as Tiwari had tried to run him over. Chaudhary and another constable, Sandip Kumar, have been arrested.

In response to the arrests and the suspension, a group of constables in Uttar Pradesh have come out in support of the two accused and decided to run a campaign by wearing black arm bands, with several messages being posted and shared on Facebook. In solidarity with the protesting UP police officers, some personnel in Uttarakhand, too, have posted messages of support for the accused UP constables.

Officials at police headquarters said they were identifying the personnel who have posted these messages and will take appropriate action against them.

The personnel of the state police department have put those posts after some of the personnel of UP police came in support of the two accused policemen by carrying social-media campaigns for them.

An officer identifying himself as a detective in the Crime Investigation Department (CID), Uttarakhand Police, and posted in Dehradun, put up a photograph on September 30 of a revolver pointing at the person holding the gun, with the caption in Hindi reading, ‘sarkaar dwara di gayi police ko nayi revolver (the new revolver provided by the government to the police)’.

In another post put up the same day, he posted three photographs featuring the damaged patrol vehicle (a motorbike) of the two policemen lying on the ground. This post, too, bears a caption in Hindi, and questions the media on showing only the SUV of the deceased and not the police’ vehicle, which the victim had allegedly tried to crush under his wheels.

In his latest post on October 2, the officer took an apparent dig at the victim’s wife over her demand for a government job. ADG, law and order, Ashok Kumar said, “Personnel of the state police department who are putting up such posts will be identified and, if found to have written those, would face strict action.” “Strict monitoring of social media will be done to identify the personnel putting up posts in support of the two constables,” he said.