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‘Will get you justice’: Top Uttar Pradesh cop assures Apple executive’s family
Vivek Tiwari was shot by constables Prashant Chowdhury and Sandeep Kumar while he was going to drop his colleague Sana Khan.
A top police officer in Lucknow has promised to get justice for the family of Apple executive Vivek Tiwari, who was shot dead by policemen when he allegedly refused to stop his car for checking late on Friday night.
“We will leave no stone unturned to get justice to the family and ensure strictest possible punishment to the accused,” ADG, Lucknow, Rajiv Krishna said at a press conference on Sunday.
His assurance came after a special investigation team constituted to probe Tiwari’s shooting, visited the scene of the crime in Gomti Nagar and did a scene recreation to piece together the sequence of events that unfolded. Forensic experts too were present.
Tiwari (38) was shot by constables Prashant Chowdhury and Sandeep Kumar while he was going to drop his colleague Sana Khan.
Chaudhary had claimed that he had asked the victim to come out of the SUV after noticing some “suspicious activity” but Tiwari did not and instead tried to hit him, forcing him to open fire in self defence.
Krishna, who visited Tiwari’s family earlier in the day, said the police was cooperating with the family and all their demands would be met.
His family members had questioned the promptness with which the constable fired on Tiwari.
“My husband was not a terrorist; neither was he carrying a gun. How can police shoot at an unarmed person so easily?” Tiwari’s wife Kalpana had asked.
Deputy chief minister K P Maurya also visited the victim’s family and promised to punish the guilty soon.
“The government is saddened by the incident and stands with the family (of the victim). Immediate steps are being taken to ensure similar incident does not occur in the future. We will severely punish those responsible,” he said according to news agency ANI.
The two constables were arrested and dismissed from the job and an FIR was registered in the matter on the basis of a complaint by Sana Khan.
The incident triggered a massive outrage against the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government and the state police, which has been recently accused of staging encounters.
The state’s police chief O P Singh condemned the shooting, describing it as a criminal case and said no policeman is permitted to gun down anybody.
A special team of officers has also been formed to probe the case. Adityanath said the case was being probed by a SIT and could be given to the CBI if need be.
