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6-min CCTV footage of Western UP toll plaza ‘missing’
MEERUT Six minutes footage of CCTV cameras at Western UP toll plaza, where a farmer was allegedly beaten to death on February 3, were found missing. The missing
MEERUT Six minutes footage of CCTV cameras at Western UP toll plaza, where a farmer was allegedly beaten to death on February 3, were found missing. The missing footage was of the period when the farmer was killed that day, said police.
Family members of the deceased accused the police of protecting toll plaza officials and said their fight for justice would continue.
Bouncers and officials of the toll plaza had allegedly beaten Sohanveer Chauhan, 32, a farmer, to death after he tried to drive off his sugarcane laden tractor trolley through the fastag lane in order to avoid traffic congestion in the cash lane. He was a resident of Dulhera village under Daurala police station area of Meerut, said police.
The chief manager, manager and another staff of the toll plaza were booked in the case.
SHO of Daurala police station JS Chauhan admitted that six minutes footage of the toll plaza’s CCTV cameras during the incident were found missing. He said rest of the footage had been sent to the forensic lab in Lucknow for recovery of the missing footage.
Chauhan said toll plaza officials claimed that power supply failure was responsible for missing footage. “The truth will come out after the test of footage in the forensic lab,” he said.
Meanwhile, deceased farmer Sohanveer Chauhan’s elder brother Naveen Chauhan accused toll plaza officials of destroying evidence to dilute the case against them.
Chauhan said investigation was being carried out on the basis of available footage. The deceased farmer’s another elder brother and eyewitness to the incident Ravindra Chauhan claimed that no one paid heed to a request to examine footages to identify the culprits.
“A week after the incident they are saying that footage during the incident is missing, which raises doubts on the police’s intention,” he added.
To recall, farmer Sohanveer, 32, a resident of Dulhera village in Daurala area, was on his way to Daurala Sugar Mill along with his elder brother Ravindra Chauhan to dump cane. He tried to drive through the fastag lane in order to avoid long queue in cash lane.
The brother duo was stopped by the toll plaza’s security personnel, which led to an altercation between them. Security personnel caught hold of the brothers and were joined in by other staff of the plaza.
The duo was thrashed. Though Ravindra managed to escape, Sohanveer was beaten to death on the road. Ravindra lodged a case of murder against the toll plaza’s chief manager, manager and one more staff.
The police arrested two security personnel, Ajay and Vichitrapal, on Saturday night. However, family members of the deceased accused the police of protecting toll plaza officials and said their fight for justice would continue.
