By IANS,
Lucknow : The Uttar Pradesh police Sunday booked Minister of State for Fisheries Jamuna Nishad and his supporters for kicking up a ruckus at a police station in eastern UP’s Maharajganj district in which a police constable was shot dead late Saturday night.
Inspector General of Police, Gorakhpur range, G.P. Sharma told IANS the minister and his supporters came to the police station late Saturday night protesting against the degree of punishment to an alleged rapist.
One of the minister’s supporters fired during the melee injuring a constable, who later succumbed to injuries at a hospital.
The case that Nishad and his supporters were agitated about related to a Dalit girl, whose parents had alleged rape against some villagers Friday but the medical examination did not confirm the charge. Later, the accused were booked for eve-teasing and taken into judicial custody, police said.
“The mob came looking for our in-charge inspector V.P. Chaudhary who was on patrol. They then started misbehaving with the force present here,” said homeguard Ramagya Prasad.
As police reinforcements started to reach the scene, the mob gradually began to thin out but before that someone from among the minister’s supporters started firing, injuring police constable Krishnanand Rai.
Rai was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was declared brought dead. Superintendent of Police, Maharajganj, Prashant Kumar said the constable’s body was being sent to his native town Mau after a guard of honour.
“An FIR (first information report) under section 302 for murder and other sections of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against the minister, one Shailendra Madheshi, husband of the gram pradhan of Rampur Buzurg village, and 50 of his supporters”, Chaudhary told IANS on phone.