CM Yogi Adityanath Says “Not An Encounter”
AMN / LUCKNOW
A Young employee of a multinational company killed after he was shot at by a police constable in Lucknow in the early hours of Saturday after he allegedly refused to stop his SUV for checking by the police.
According to reports, Vivek Tiwari, who worked as area sales manager with Apple, was fired upon by a constable after he failed to stop his SUV despite being asked to do so by a police patrol team.
The incident took place when Vivek Tiwari along with one of his colleagues was returning home after a mobile launch event.
Lucknow Superintendent of Police Kalanidhi Naithani said that cops opened fire on Tiwari after he refused to stop his vehicle. The deceased panicked following the firing and rammed the SUV into the pillar of an underpass. He suffered serious injuries in the accident and was taken to a local hospital by the police but died during treatment, the top cop claimed.
The constable and his colleague have been arrested, with a murder case registered against them.
With the opposition Congress attacking the Uttar Pradesh government, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has reacted to the incident, saying he will even ask for a CBI investigation, if need be. A Special Investigation Team has been formed to probe the case.
The shooting took place at around 1:30 am in Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar extension area when Vivek Tiwari was driving with a former colleague. Two policemen on patrol flagged his car, asking them to stop. Mr Tiwari first hit the police patrol bike and then rammed a wall while allegedly trying to escape, the police said.
Constable Prashant Kumar opened fire at the car on noticing “suspicious activity” and the bullet pierced through the windscreen, Lucknow police chief Kalanidhi Naithani said.
Vivek Tiwati died of bullet injury at a hospital in the city, the police said. “The post-mortem report establishes a firearm injury from a bullet on the left side of the chin. The viscera of the victim has been preserved,” Anand Kumar, Uttar Pradesh Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) said.
The autopsy revealed on Saturday that the bullet hit Tiwari’s chin and got stuck between the neck and the head, leading to his death due to excessive bleeding.
Police investigating the case said the constables used “excessive force”. “This was not a planned shooting. They are saying that the car was stationary. Then the man backed his car and the constables perhaps felt that he was trying to run them over,” said Lucknow police chief Kalanidhi Naithani. “The situation could have been avoided and that’s why we have booked the constables for murder. There is a clear cut excessive use of force and it is unacceptable,” he said.
The Congress attacked the Yogi Adityanath and his government. “Heart goes out to Kalpana Tiwari and her family with her husband being shot by trigger happy UP Police on mere suspicion. The CM who gave these order to the Police must answer,” Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi tweeted.