Man injured in midnight firing,cops try to shift blame

There were five occupants in the jeep — Bablu,Santlal and his wife Suman,Lapu and Narendra Maurya.

During the shootout,one of them,Bablu,sustained a bullet injury in his hand. Later,when Santlal and Narendra went to Bakshi Ka Talab police station to lodge a complaint about the firing,they were arrested. The two was produced before the court and remanded in judicial custody on Thursday.

The Lucknow police say that the plainclothes policemen belonged to the neighbouring Sitapur district. Admitting that they were there,the police from Sitapur’s Kamlapur station,claim they were accompanied by Dayaram Kureel,the Station Officer of Bakshi Ka Talab. The Lucknow police have denied the charge.

The Station Officer of Kamlapur police station N K Pandey,said four constables,led by S-I Dashrath Singh,had gone to Bakshi ka Talab to arrest a wanted criminal. Kureel was accompanying the team and present when the exchange of fire took place.

The DIG (Lucknow) Rajeev Krishna,has asked the Circle Officer (CO) of Bakshi ka Talab,Tribhuvan Nath Tripathi,to probe the incident. “A case of attempt to murder has been registered against unidentified men for firing at the Bolero. Investigation will confirm the identity of the assailants,” said DIG Krishna.

Claiming that Station Officer Kureel was not present when the firing took place,Tripathi said according to the Sitapur police,the shootout took place after the occupants of the Bolero tried to rob the police team and opened fire at them. The team had even lodged an FIR to that effect – the complainant was Sub-Inspector Dashrath Tripathi.

Preliminary investigation,however,found that the allegation was baseless,Tripathi said. “I am yet to interrogate the S-I to verify if both sides indulged in firing,” he said.

The jeep’s occupants,meanwhile,claim they were innocent and were caught unawares by the firing.

Bablu,who sustained a bullet injury in the shootout,said they have been falsely implicated. A resident of Bhainsamau village in Bakshi Ka Talab and a farmer by occupation,he had agreed to accompany his friend Santlal to the latter’s in-laws’ village in Itaunja to help him sort out a legal complication. “Santlal’s brother-in-law Chhotu and his father-in-law were arrested after Chhotu’s wife had lodged a complaint alleging that she was beaten up by them. Santlal asked us to accompany him to Itaunja to secure their bail,” said Bablu who is recuperating at CSMMU.

When the car with its five occupants reached the village in Itaunja,they were told that the bail will not be granted that day,and they decided to return home. “We had reached Paharpur where a white Tata Magic was parked in the middle of the road,” Bablu said. “Lapu told them not to park the vehicle on the middle of the road when someone from the car started firing at us. I was seated in the rear part of the Bolero and my hand was hit by a bullet.”

“There were about five men in the car,all in plain clothes,” Suman said,“we had no idea they were policemen.” At the CSMMU,the doctors advised them to lodge an FIR. “Santlal and Narendra went to lodge a complaint with the police but the police detained them,” she added.

No one in the car was carrying any weapons,said Bablu. “The police have mistaken us for somebody else and have put my friends in jail.”

Lapu has been missing from Tuesday night.