Uttar Pradesh: A case similar to Vivek Tiwari murder in Meerut, police call it encounter

A 20-year-old man was shot dead on Monday morning at 3 am in an alleged police encounter in Meerut. The young man was called Irshad and he belonged to Riyavali Nagla village of Ratanpuri police station area, Muzaffarnagar. There has been no lawsuit filed against him anywhere. According to Meerut police some cow smugglers were running away allegedly after stealing a bull. The police chased them near Salawa village in Sardhana police station area. Later, in an encounter with the police, Irshad was killed. Irshad's father Dilshad has completely dismissed the police version of the incident. According to Dilshad, “My son’s name became the cause of his murder. There is no lawsuit filed against him or any member of my family. He had gone to the fields to turn on the water for watering the fields. He works as a truck driver. His truck broke down so, he had been staying at home for two days.

The Salawa Chowki In charge Om Prakash Arya has also been wounded in the arm during this alleged encounter. In the typical style of the Uttar Pradesh police officials getting injured in these encounters, a bullet brushed past him wounding his arm. The family members of the deceased have called this encounter absolutely fake as the police have not been able to catch any of his companions and there is no eye witness to the entire incident. Dilshad, the father of the deceased said, “ first the police told us that they have caught our son stealing the bull and later they said he has died.

The SSP of Meerut, Akhilesh Kumar claims that the cow smugglers were taking away a bull in a Mahindra pickup truck. These smugglers opened fire on the police team in which an inspector was wounded in the arm. In retaliatory firing by the police a smuggler was shot in the head and he died during the medical treatment. The police are now looking for his record.

The deceased Irshad belonged to the Ratanpuri police station area of Muzaffarnagar. The Ratanpuri SHO Maganveer Singh says that there is no case filed against him in the police station. There is a deep resentment in the entire village after this incident and the police have been deployed for security reasons.

The police informed the village chief Yunus about the incident at five o'clock in the morning. The family members of the deceased created a ruckus at the post mortem house in Meerut. According to the Superintendent of Police Rural, Rajesh Kumar, the occurrence of cow smuggling will end after this incident. Whereas the Chief of the village Nagla, Yunus argues that on what basis are the police calling Irshad a cow smuggler? He was only 20 and had no case registered against him. Have the police decided to sacrifice people to rein in cow smuggling.

The residents of Nagla village are also calling this encounter a fake one and are thinking of filing a complaint in the national Human Rights Commission regarding this incident. The father of the deceased Dilshad is demanding a CBI enquiry into this.

The Samajwadi Party in Meerut has strongly condemned this ‘encounter’. Local MLA Rafiq Ansari called it an outright murder. According to Rafiq Ansari a delegation of the Samajwadi Party will meet the high level officials regarding this incident and then will decide the strategy. “In Uttar Pradesh these encounters are taking place keeping in mind the caste and religion of the victims. This encounter is also fake”, he says.