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Sarwan Sahu murder case: No proof of negligence by former Lucknow SSP, says probe panel
The then Lucknow SSP was accused of laxity in providing security cover to Sarwan Sahu, 58, despite multiple requests. He was shot dead on February 1, 2017
A probe panel constituted by the Uttar Pradesh government has given a clean chit to former Lucknow senior superintendent of police (SSP) Manzil Saini in connection with allegations of negligence in the February 2017 Sarwan Sahu murder case under the Saadatganj police station limits of the state capital, senior home department officials said on Friday.
She was accused of laxity in providing security cover to Sarwan Sahu, 58, despite multiple requests. He was shot dead on February 1, 2017.
Saini, a 2005-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, was the first-ever woman district police chief of Lucknow.
Currently on central deputation, she is posted as deputy inspector general (DIG) of the National Security Guard (NSG) headquarters in New Delhi since January 23, 2019.
A senior police official privy to the development said that the state government constituted a two-member inquiry committee comprising two senior IPS officers -- additional director general (ADG) of state intelligence Bhagwan Swaroop and superintendent of police (SP), intelligence for Ayodhya, Sanjeev Tyagi.
He said the committee was probing the matter since June 20 and gave a clean chit to Saini in its report after analysing the statements of several police officers, journalists and Sarwan Sahu’s family members as well as Saini’s reply.
He said the committee had found no proof of Saini’s negligence in the entire episode. He also said Sahu’s family members had given a statement in her favour that she had directed to provide security cover, but under some circumstances, the security was not available to him.
The state government had initiated a departmental inquiry against Saini on the recommendation of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The CBI had investigated the Sarwan Sahu murder case and found Saini’s alleged negligence, following which the central agency wrote a letter to the state government on March 9, 2021.
Sarwan Sahu was shot dead by two motorcycle-borne assailants, who barged into his shop outside his house in a crowded residential locality under Saadatganj police station limits of Lucknow on February 1, 2017.
Sahu was fighting the murder case of his 27-year-old son Ayush Sahu, who was shot dead by a local gangster Aqeel Ansari after a brawl outside a beer shop on Campbell Road under Thakurganj police station on October 16, 2013.
