By IANS,
Lucknow : In a post-midnight action, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati ordered suspension of two police officers who allegedly assaulted the local bureau chief of a news channel and tried to frame him in a false criminal case here late Sunday night.
Hundreds of scribes from the electronic as well as print media marched down to the chief minister’s residence where they staged a sit-in demonstration until an official of the chief minister’s office came down and announced the suspension of Superintendent of Police (city) B.P. Ashok and Hazratganj Circle Officer Anoop Kumar.
“The government has decided to order suspension of both B.P. Ashok and Anoop Kumar, against whom a criminal case was also being registered,” Navneet Sehgal, Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer and secretary to chief minister, told mediapersons.
A criminal case was also registered against both the cops for assaulting the journalist from IBN-7 channel, as also for attempting to cook up a false criminal case against him, besides giving threats to his life.
The victim Shalab Mani Tripathi told reporters: “I was standing on the roadside, some distance away from my office, when some cops led by the SP (City) B.P. Ashok pounced on me and dragged me into their vehicle, which took me to the nearby Hazratganj police station. I was beaten on the way and after reaching the police station B.P. Ashok threatened to eliminate me if I continued to run anti-police stories.”
“I have reason to believe that the police is out to target me because I have been consistently exposing their manipulations in several glaring criminal cases including that of (deputy chief medical officer) Y.S. Sachan, who was shown as having committed suicide in jail,” he added.