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Sitapur S-I’s death: Allahabad HC orders murder FIR against 5 cops, probe by IPS officer
The bench said the wife of the deceased had alleged that the SHO and others had murdered her husband
The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has ordered the inspector general (IG) of police, Lucknow range, to register an FIR of murder against five police personnel for their alleged involvement in the mysterious death of an honest sub-inspector (SI) Manoj Kumar in Sitapur four months ago.
The court further ordered the IG to get a probe carried out by a senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer posted in a district other than Sitapur. The August 6, 2024 order of the court was uploaded on its website on Tuesday.
Sub-inspector Manoj Kumar, 55, who joined the UP Police as a constable in 1990 and was promoted to the rank of S-I in 2023, was found dead in Sitapur with a bullet wound in chest reportedly fired by his service revolver on April 12 earlier this year.
He was posted at Sitapur’s Machhrehta police station at the time of the incident. Considered an upright policeman, he always opposed corrupt practices.
He also shared a picture of a handwritten application with his son on WhatsApp in which he accused the then inspector in charge of Machhrehta police station, Raj Bahadur Singh and four constables Abu Hadi Khan, Ranjeet Yadav, Shane Alam and Sunil Kumar of being involved in corrupt practices and mounting pressure on him to give certain amount of money to them every month.
Following it, SP Sitapur Chakresh Mishra had transferred the inspector and four constables from the police station but no FIR was lodged against them.
In its August 6 order, the Lucknow bench comprising Justice Vivek Chaudhary and Justice Narendra Kumar Johari directed Lucknow range IG Prashant Kumar-II to get an FIR registered on the application of the deceased’s wife Geeta Devi and get its investigation done by a senior IPS officer not posted in Sitapur.
The bench said the wife of the deceased had alleged that the SHO and others had murdered her husband and them made it look like a suicide case. The bench observed that the post-mortem report revealed that the S-I had suffered firearm injury at the left side of his chest/heart.
“Most of the internal organs were found intact. In the post-mortem report, the internal organs have been noted as “NAD”, as such, it is not possible in the case of suicide,” the bench said. The court said it was highly objectionable that no FIR was lodged despite the SP Sitapur assuring the deceased’s wife when she met him on April 29 and gave her an application in this regard.
Besides, the committee constituted by the SP and headed by an additional SP to probe the matter had also not been finalised yet. Moreover, the video footage of the CCTV cameras which have been installed and are working continuously 24X7 in the police station has not been procured.
The SP Sitapur had declared the death as a suicide immediately after the incident without properly inquiring about the matter. IG Prashant Kumar was not available for comment when contacted about the compliance with the court order. His public relations officer said over phone that the IG was busy in a meeting and that he will convey the message to him.
