LUCKNOW: Alleging that police killed a youth in Jhansi last week in a staged gunfight, the Samajwadi Party on Tuesday demanded lodging of a murder case against the SHO involved in the encounter and a probe into the incident by a sitting high court judge.
The Jhansi police last week had said an "illegal sand miner", Pushpendra Yadav, was killed on the night intervening October 5 and 6 in an encounter, hours after he had fired at a police team led by Moth police station's SHO Dharmendra Singh Chauhan and had driven away his car.
"By forcibly performing the last rites of Puspendra Yadav, the BJP government has proved it can go up to any extent to save murder accused (SHO). We demand lodging of an FIR under section 302 (murder) against the SHO and a probe into the case by a sitting high court judge," the Samajwadi Party said in a tweet.
Party president Akhilesh Yadav will be visiting victim's place in Jhansi tomorrow, it added.
Jhansi's Senior Superintendent of Police OP Singh had said Pushpendra Yadav was involved in illegal sand mining and was annoyed with the station officer as he had seized some of his sand-laden trucks on September 29.
The police had claimed three motorcycle-borne youth, including Yadav, had accosted a police team led by Moth SHO on Kanpur-Jhansi highway near Bamrouli crossing on saturday night and Pushpendra had shot at Singh and taken away his car.
Later, at around 3 am the police spotted the trio with the SHO's car near Garotha and killed Pushpendar in an encounter.
Two separate FIRs were lodged at Moth and Gursarain police stations against Pushpendra Yadav, Vipin and Ravindra on Sunday. The Samajwadi Party termed the encounter as "fake" and alleged Pushpendra was murdered by police when he came to meet the SHO to negotiate the release of his trucks.