Aligarh, 14 Dec: A 55-year-old woman from Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, died late Wednesday night after being shot in the head by a police sub-inspector who “accidentally fired” his service pistol.
On December 8, Ishrat Nigar went to the Kotwali police station for verification of her passport credentials when she was shot by Bhujpura police outpost in-charge Manoj Sharma, who had been given a loaded pistol by a policeman.
Ishrat, accompanied by her 30-year-old son Ishan, was brought to the hospital while Sharma and policeman Sudip escaped the scene. Following her death at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, significant police presence was imposed, and her autopsy was performed at roughly 2 a.m. by a team of physicians.
“She had surgery on Tuesday, but her condition deteriorated. She passed away late Wednesday night. The body has been turned over to the police,” stated Chief Medical Superintendent Mohammed Haris. A non-bailable warrant has been issued against Sharma, who was suspended shortly after the event, according to Aligarh Senior Superintendent of Police Kalanidhi Naithani, and three teams have been established to apprehend him.
“We have announced a Rs 20,000 reward for anyone who can lead us to his whereabouts and have distributed his photographs to many districts. Aligarh police nabbed Constable Sudip from Takipur village in Etawah,” Naithani stated.
Ishrat’s son Ishan, who filed the FIR at Kotwali police station, claimed that policeman Sudip demanded whopping amount of money from his mother for verification and that when they arrived, they were told to return in an hour.
“But we decided to wait at the police station, and the police bullet hit my mother within seconds. The cops fled, and we rushed her to the medical college, where she died from her injuries,” he explained.
According to Mrigank Shekhar Pathak, superintendent of police, city, Aligarh, the first FIR was filed under the charge of deadly assault, but it has now been changed to Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code.
“The fugitive cop arrived in Aligarh three months ago from Agra and was assigned to the Bhujpura police outpost, which is attached to the Kotwali police station where the incident occurred. We also stormed Sharma’s home in Meerut, but he eluded us,” Pathak added.
As word of Ishrat’s death spread, representatives from the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress, as well as students from Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), arrived to the medical college.
“Manoj Sharma is a criminal, which is why he has evaded the police so far. He murdered her, but the cops are attempting to cover it up by pretending that the gunshot was discharged accidently. Where is Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s bulldozer justice now? So far, none of the fleeing cop’s properties have been demolished,” former SP legislator Haji Zameer Ullah Khan remarked.
“Sharma left with the murder weapon. We just have the bullet as proof for now. An investigation is already underway to determine if the gunshot was fired unintentionally or on purpose,” according to Naithani.
