Police in Uttar Pradesh have failed to nab the killers of Deputy Superintendent of Police Zia Ul Haque, who was gunned down by a mob visibly agitated over the murder of a local village head in Pratapgarh district, about 140 km from Lucknow on Saturday night.
The exchange of fire between the cops and the villagers took a third life -- that of the 40-year-old gram pradhan Nanhe Yadav.
An officer of the 2009 batch of Provincial Police Service, 32-year-old Haque was posted as circle officer of Kunda, better known as the political bastion of controversial UP Minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh aka ‘Raja Bhaiya’, whose proximity to the killers was allegedly coming in the way of their arrest.
Interestingly, those responsible for the murder of the ‘gram pradhan’ were also understood to be closely associated with Raja Bhaiya, who was therefore now stated to be caught on a cleft stick.
Nanhe Yadav was shot from point blank range while he was sipping tea at a roadside stall with his supporters in Kunda on Saturday evening.
The assailant managed to escape, leaving the supporters terribly frustrated and agitated.
No sooner than the body of the gram pradhan was brought from the local hospital where he was declared “brought dead” to the police station, the mob turned even more violent and attacked the cops.
A free-for-all ensued in which Haque, sub-inspector Vinay Kumar Singh and gunner Imran received gunshot injuries.
“A fatal bullet hit Haque, who apparently breathed his last on the spot. The other two cops suffered serious injuries,” an official spokesman told media persons in Lucknow Sunday.
“Apart from sending additional police force from neighbouring districts, a team of top police officers led by the additional DG (Law and Order) has been rushed from the state capital,” he said.
