In an alleged case of mistaken identity, Haryana Police shot dead 22-year-old college student Kuldeep in Bhiwani on Sunday night.
Police mistook Kuldeep for a robber and killed him
CHANDIGARH: In an alleged case of mistaken identity, Haryana Police shot dead 22-year-old college student Kuldeep in Bhiwani on Sunday night.
The incident occurred when the student was returning home from a wedding with brother Vikas and a friend.
While the police said it was “accidental firing”, head constable Karanbir Singh, who is accused of the shooting, has been booked and arrested for murder. Seven other police personnel present at the site of the incident have also been booked.
The killing sparked widespread protests from college students in Bhiwani, Rohtak, Hisar and the state capital of Chandigarh.
A group of students demonstrating outside the governor’s residence here demanded suspension of all policemen involved in the incident.
In Bhiwani, Rohtak and Hisar, vehicular traffic was blocked and police vehicles damaged.
Narrating the incident, victim’s brother Vikas said they were returning home on a motorcycle when a police van stopped them and without provocation or questioning, one of the policemen fired at Kuldeep from “point-blank range”.
He said the police began enquiry only after Kuldeep fell from the bike after being hit in the forehead. Soon, he breathed his last, prompting the police to flee the site, Vikas claimed.
A witness alleged the policemen were drunk and manhandled them before firing at Kuldeep. However, Hissar superintendent of police Anil Kumar Rao said the student’s death at the hands of Hansi Police was an accident.
He said the police stopped the youth as they had information that Dara Singh, a prime suspect in a robbery of Rs2.16 lakh at Sorkhi village in May, was in Bhiwani. When the police signalled them to stop at midnight, the youth tried to speed away, Rao claimed, after which a police party chased them on Tosham-Bhiwani Road. As the cops neared their motorcycle, a constable’s gun went off accidentally due to the poor condition of the road, he said.
Leaders of opposition parties questioned the police way of dealing with criminals. Former finance minister Sampat Singh said the incident reflected the brutality with which they dealt with people.
“How could police identify criminals without arresting and interrogating them?” he wondered and demanded that the governor intervene and check police highhandedness.
In the last one year this is the third incident of Haryana Police shooting down a person after dubbing him an outlaw.
Chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said a magisterial inquiry had been instituted even as an ex-gratia of Rs2 lakh granted to the victim’s family.
b_ajay@dnaindia.net
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