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.
Apart from the sub-inspector, the 17 other suspended personnel are constables, with five of them women. All of them were attached to the police outpost ‘Jajji’, located inside the court premises.
On Tuesday, assailants opened fire in a courtroom in Bijnor, killing a 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 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.
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 on Tuesday afternoon when the assailants fired at them, leaving main accused Shahnawaz dead and letting co-accused Jabbar to escape.
One of the policemen was referred to Meerut hospital where he was out of danger and Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Yogesh Kumar escaped unhurt, the SP said, adding Haji Ehsaan’s son was among those arrested.
Samajwadi Party on the incident
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,” Mr. Yadav tweeted in Hindi.
In Lucknow, Director General of Police OP Singh yesterday termed the incident the outcome of a “rivalry in which a son took revenge of his father“s killing” and said that all the three accused were arrested with their weapons by the police.
“They were chased by policemen and nabbed with three fine quality pistols,” he said, adding that a probe into the matter is on.
About the occurrence of such an incident in court premises, the DGP said, “We will review the security of courts.”
