A police constable was murdered by an accused on the high security premises of the Ahmedabad crime branch on Thursday.
Constable Chandrakant Makwana was interrogating one Manish Balani late in the evening when he was reportedly murdered.
Balani mysteriously managed to escape from the crime branch premises, which is guarded by the State Reserved Police, besides local police personnel.
“Manish Balani, accused in a looting and narcotics case, was brought in for interrogation by Chandrakant Makwana. It appears that Manish committed the murder and disappeared from the scene,” said C. N. Rajput, Assistant Commissioner of Police.
“We have formed three teams, involving three police inspectors and five sub-inspectors, to nab the accused,” Mr. Rajput said, adding that a dog squad had also been pressed into service to establish the escape route of the accused.
CCTV footage“The constable was hit with an iron pipe on his head and face, and he died on the spot. His body was found lying in a pool of blood. We don’t know how the pipe was brought into the interrogation room,” Mr. Rajput said.
When asked about CCTV footage, the crime branch officials said cameras were not installed inside interrogation rooms. However, the CCTV cameras installed at the main entrance of the high security premises also have no footage of how the accused escaped from the office.
Meanwhile, relatives of the murdered constable demanded a detailed CBI probe into the incident and compensation of Rs. 25 lakh to the family of the deceased.
The opposition Congress slammed the State for the murder.
“This brutal murder of the constable exposes the law and order situation in the State. If a police constable can be murdered in a high security police station, who is safe in Gujarat?” asked the leader of the opposition, Shankarsinh Vaghela.
