Youth killed as Agra cops open fire at mob during raid in Dholpur village
TRAGEDY 9 policemen from Agra booked for murder, local police officials say they were not informed about raid BHARATPUR
: A 25-year-old man was killed in a Rajasthan village when a team of Uttar Pradesh Police looking for cattle thieves opened fire at a mob, which allegedly attacked them when they detained some elderly people.
A murder case was later registered at Sar Mathura police station in Rajasthan’s Dholpur against nine policemen from Agra’s Basai Jagner police station on a complaint filed by the victim’s family.
The incident took place around 1 am Wednesday when a police team from Basai Jagner conducted a raid at Saypur village to arrest the accused named in matter of theft of buffaloes registered on December 25.
Senior superintendent of police, Agra, Amit Pathak said that the team had received concrete information about location of the accused.
Local officials said that the UP Police caught some elderly men, who started crying. The villagers, who did not realise that the men had been detained by the UP Police, entered into a scuffle with them and started pelting stones.
“They assaulted us and stated pelting stones at us. We tried to escape and took shelter inside a farm before opening fire in defence,” said Vivek Sharma, SHO, Basai Jagner.
Rameshwar Gurjar, 25, was killed in the police firing, Dholpur Additional SP Rajendra Vera said. Constable Uma Shankar of UP police sustained injuries and was admitted to a local hospital.
On being informed, a team of local police reached the spot and took custody of the body, which was sent for post-mortem before being handed over to his family.
On a complaint by Gujrar’s cousin, Mohar Singh, the local police booked nine policemen from UP, including the Basai Jagner SHO, sub-inspector Pradeep, and two woman constables under Section 302 (murder) of IPC.
In his complaint, Singh said that some miscreants arrived at the village in two jeeps and tried to forcibly take away some elderly people. Protesting this, villagers started pelting stones at which the miscreants opened fire in which his cousin was killed.
The Agra SSP claimed that “half a dozen policemen were injured in stone pelting and cross firing”. “It was a planned attack and action will be taken against those responsible,” he added.
Dholpur SP Rajesh Singh said there was no complaint against the victim with regard to cattletheft. Agra police have registered a case against the villagers for attacking them, he said, adding the UP Police had not informed the local police before conducting the raid.
“Dholpur police or officials at Sar Mathura had no information about the raid. Later, on receiving information about the clash, circle officer Arjun Singh from Dholpur reached the village and rescued the Agra police,” he said.
However, Basai Jagner SHO claimed that they had informed the local police, “but they didn’t help us”.