Lucknow/Bijnor: Eighteen personnel including the sub-inspector of a police outpost have been suspended in connection with Tuesday’s firing in a courtroom in Bijnor which led to the death of a murder accused, officials said Wednesday.
Apart from the sub-inspector, the 17 other suspended personnel are in the rank of constable, with five of them women. All of them were attached to the police outpost ‘Jajji’, located inside the court premises.
Assailants opened fire in a courtroom Tuesday in Bijnor, killing Shahnawaz one of the murder accused and injuring two policemen. Another murder accused took advantage of the commotion and managed to escape.
“Eighteen police personnel, including a sub-inspector, of a police outpost have been suspended for laxity in connection with yesterday’s (Tuesday) firing in Bijnor courtroom. The rest of the 17 are constables. This includes 12 male constables and five female constables,” Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi said in a statement.
While recommending their suspension, Circle Officer (City) Arun Kumar Singh wrote a letter to Bijnor SP Sanjeev Tyagi, saying, “It is expected from the police personnel on duty that they should allow any person to enter the court premises only after proper checking and frisking. Police personnel deployed in the security of the court are expected to discharge their duty with full dedication. However, this was not done, and as a result of which, the incident took place.”
Meanwhile, security has been beefed up in the court premises in Muzaffarnagar in view of the firing incident in the Bijnor court. Every person entering the court premises, except the staff and lawyers, are being physically checked.
The Muzaffarnagar court had witnessed a similar incident in 2015, when an armed man entered the courtroom masquerading as a lawyer and shot dead Vicky Tyagi, an alleged gangster.
According to police, among the three assailants arrested after the attack in the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court in Bijnor, was the son of the man murdered six months back.
The incident occurred when the three entered into the courtroom and showered bullets on two accused in the murder of a property dealer, Haji Ehsaan, and his nephew in Najibabad area of the district.
Both were brought to the CJM court for hearing from Tihar jail in Delhi Tuesday afternoon when the assailants fired at them.
The incident prompted Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav to attack the Yogi Adityanath government on the law and order situation.
“The daylight murder of an accused in front of a judge in Bijnor shows how much impact ‘encounter wali sarkar’ has on criminals. When the honourable judge has to flee to save his life, the talk of security for common man has no meaning. This is the state of double engine government,” Akhsilesh tweeted in Hindi.
PTI
