LUCKNOW: The highhandedness of cops has yet again left the UP police red-faced as the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued a notice to state DGP over the arrest of 10 persons, including the owner of a Dhaba, in a false case in Etah district.
The cops had framed the Dhaba owner and nine others after they were asked to pay for the food they had eaten at the eatery recently.
Having taken the suo motu cognizance of the issue through media reports, the commission has sought the response of the state police authorities in connection with the case, wherein two cops got engaged in a brawl at a Dhaba when asked to foot the bill of the food they had savoured.
As per the NHRC statement, two policemen got involved in a squabble at a Dhaba over payment of the bill for the food they consumed and they then falsely implicated and arrested 10 persons including the Dhaba owner and his brother and eight customers in an alleged encounter with them. "The persons arrested by the police are in judicial custody at present," the notice said.
In fact, the two cops got annoyed with a Dhaba owner in Etah district when he asked them to foot their bill amounting to Rs 450. They handed over just Rs 100 to the Dhaba owner saying it was enough.
When Dhaba owner Praveen Kumar Yadav, an engineering graduate, confronted them and did not let them go, the cops asked their colleagues to come to the Dhaba and got engaged in a squabble with the owner and his staff, arrested them, and sent them behind bars on a string of false charges.
The cops booked Yadav, his elder brother, and his eight customers in 12 fake cases under sections related to attempt to murder, sections of the Excise Act, the Arms Act, and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS).
Now, the policemen have themselves been booked under various IPC sections, including 384 (extortion), 342 (wrongful confinement), 336 (endangering life or safety) and 211 (false charge of offence).
According to Piyush Modia, IG, Aligarh range, the cases lodged against the Dhaba owners and others were shifted to Aligarh for probe and the two constables were suspended.