LUCKNOW: In an incident of brutal attack, a retired cop was mercilessly beaten up with sticks by three persons on a street with passersby remaining mute spectators to the assault in Allahabad on Tuesday.
However, the incident was caught on CCTV installed in an adjoining house. When the culprits left the victim lying beside the road thinking him to be dead, someone informed his family which rushed him to the hospital where the doctors declared him dead upon arrival.
The daughter of the deceased retired cop lodged an FIR and named 10 persons in the attack case. Taking the cognizance of the video which went viral and the media reports, the Allahabad High Court treated it as a Public Interest Litigation and asked the state government to explain what action was taken in the case.
Notably, after court's intervention, the district police swung into action and had arrested four accused by the time of filing this report. The video footage of the incident shows retired sub-inspector Abdul Samad Khan entering a street in Teliyarganj locality of Allahabad on a bicycle when he was confronted by a man in red shirt who came from behind.
He attacked the cop with the stick raining blows on him merciless following which 70-year-old Khan slumped to the ground in the narrow lane. As per a count, the retired cops was hit around 49 times in the 90-second video.
Initially, the retired policeman resisted the attack but when the attacker was joined by two more persons, he gave up. In the CCTV video clip, several people on foot, cycles and on two-wheelers were seen passing by but no one came to the rescue of Khan being assaulted.
The footage shows the attackers escaping after the assault. Khan was later taken to hospital where he succumbed to injuries. According to city police chief Brijesh Srivastava, the case was registered on a complaint of Khan's daughter who had implicated 10 people in the case and four persons were arrested by the evening. All those held were accomplices of the prime suspect Junaid Kamal, who had several cases registered against him.
"The issue is related to land dispute between both the parties who are neighbours. The history-sheeter Junaid Kamal and his brother Javed, named in the FIR, are among those on the run. Teams of Crime Branch and Shivkuti police are carrying out raids to nab all accused," Srivastava added.
Meanwhile, the division bench of Allahabad High Court comprising Chief justice DB Bhosale and Justice CD Singh, took notice of the media reports regarding the incident and issued notice to state government to explain to the court through Additional Advocate General Manish Goel as to what action was taken in the case. The police were ordered to submit a report on Wednesday outlining the steps taken to arrest all the accused named in the FIR.