PM report gives the lie to Raja Bhaiya's claims

The post mortem (PM) analysis report of the Deputy SP of Kunda (Pratapgarh), who was killed in mob violence on Saturday, has raised more questions than it answers. The police official Zia-ul-Haq’s wife Parveen has repeatedly alleged that her husband was not the victim of mob rage but a concerted conspiracy.

The pradhan of the Balipur village Nanhe Yadav and his brother Suresh were also shot dead in the violence over a long-standing feud over land. The killers were said to be associates of UP Cabinet Minister Raja Bhaiya who resigned on Monday.

The PM report which came out on Tuesday mentions two fire injury marks on the police official’s body whereas the Additional DG (Law & Order) Arun Kumar told reporters that the slain Circle Officer’s body bore only one bullet injury mark. Haq was reported to have been killed by one bullet which entered his body through the left side of his back and exited from the chest after puncturing his left lung.

The ADG also said that the bullet which killed the CO was yet to be found and thus it was not certain which weapon was used to kill him. He also said that the pradhan Nanhe Yadav had been killed with a .315 bullet while his brother fell to a .12-bore bullet, and the police uses neither of these bores.

This completely gives the lie to Raja Bhaiya’s statement to the media on Monday in which he had said – quoting the PM report – that both the CO and the pradhan’s brother had been killed by a police service revolver. The CO’s service revolver has been missing since the incident. But, the question now being asked is how did Raja Bhaiya know which weapon killed the CO when the bullet is yet to be recovered? Also, on what basis did he say that the pradhan’s brother had also been killed by a service revolver?

The PM report says that the CO’s body bears eight serious ante-mortem (before death) injuries on the head, neck, chest and legs. The report mentions bullet wounds and bodily injuries as the cause of death. Haq’s wife Parveen, a second year BDS student, has told the media that from the injuries on her husband’s body, it seemed as if he had been tied up and beaten mercilessly before being shot dead.

Meanwhile, family members of the pradhan and his brother sat on a dharna in Balipur village demanding security and action against the assailants, only two of whom have been arrested yet.

The pradhan’s wife told the media on Tuesday that while Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had visited the martyr police official’s house, given Rs 50 lakh as relief, promised a job and adequate security, nothing had been done for them. “Why have we been left at the mercy of the killers to die?” she asked.