LUCKNOW: An Uttar Pradesh constable was on Saturday arrested and booked for murder after he shot and killed a young Apple executive from close range, an official said. The state government has also ordered a probe into the incident.
The constable and his colleague have been dismissed from service and sent to jail, the police said. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said if needed a CBI inquiry would be ordered.
According to a colleague of Apple sales manager, the constable, Prashant Chowdhary, had shot at Vivek Tiwari after chasing the SUV he was driving. He had apparently failed to stop Tiwari during a late night checking.
The incident happened at around 1.30 am when Tiwari was heading home after the launch of iPhone XS and XS Max along with Sana Khan, his colleague.
Khan said that after they were fired at, Tiwari got scared and drove the SUV into an underpass pillar, further sustaining injuries.
The Director-General of Police, O.P. Singh, has constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Inspector General (Lucknow) to probe the case. Superintendent of Police (SP) crime and rural will be part of the team which has been asked to submit its report at the earliest.
SSP Lucknow has met District Magistrate Kaushalraj Sharma requesting a simultaneous magisterial inquiry
The autopsy revealed on Saturday that the bullet had hit Tiwari in the chin and got stuck between the neck and the head, leading to his death due to “profuse bleeding”.
The SSP of Police, Lucknow, Kalanidhi Naithani, said the constable had been booked for murder after Khan filed an FIR.
According to the police, when the constable at Gomtinagar extension signaled Tiwari to stop for checking, “he tried to flee”. Police officials said, “Tiwari sped away and his car hit a bike on which two constables were riding, who then chased and shot him”.
A police officer, not wanting to be named, said that “the constable fired in self-defense.” The Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order), Anand Kumar, however, conceded that “law has been violated in the incident”.
#Lucknow At 2 am last night, I saw a suspicious car with its lights off, when I approached the car, the driver (Vivek Tiwari) tried to run over me thrice to kill me. I fired a bullet in self-defence, he then immediately took off from the spot: Police constable Prashant Chaudhary pic.twitter.com/ZSLiATeCU6
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) September 29, 2018
He also punctured the self-defense theory floated by his own men and said that had this been the case, the policeman could have fired at the tyre of the SUV rather than directly shoot at the man.
Kumar added that this was a “shameful incident for the police force”. Police had initially claimed that the bike was hit by the deceased and the constables were injured.
However, no injuries were found on the policemen involved nor were their official vehicle damaged.
A second policeman has also been arrested and was sent for medical examination to ascertain if they were drunk when the incident took place, an official said.
[source_without_link]IANS[/source_without_link]