VARANASI: All nine cops posted at Gursandi police outpost in Uttar Pradesh‘s Mirzapur district were suspended Tuesday after a 30-year-old man was shot dead in a group clash following a dispute over a donation box placed for collecting ‘bhandara‘ (community feast) funds for a local temple.
Mirzapur superintendent of police Abhinandan suspended the cops, including the outpost in-charge, for overlooking previous complaints regarding disputes between the two groups and failing to take appropriate action.The move came after villagers, in the SP’s presence, accused local police of negligence and apathy to earlier feuds in the area. When officers investigated the matter, they found the allegations true, prompting the Mirzapur superintendent of police to suspend Gurusandi outpost in-charge and SI Mahfooz Ahmed, head constables Sitaram Gautam, Ambika Maurya, Surendra Ram Bhardwaj, Sunil Kumar, Sunil Kumar Singh, Rajesh Yadav, and constables Anil Kumar Gupta and Agam Singh.
After taking stock of the situation at the spot of the clash, the SP said one Shrawan Pandey was killed when his rival Shrinarain Dubey (50) and his aides opened fire at Pandey during the group clash. Four accused in the case were subsequently arrested and a probe was launched to determine the involvement of more suspects in the attack. Pandey’s body, meanwhile, was sent for an autopsy, the the superintendent of police said.
An initial investigation revealed an old dispute between the families of Pandey and Dubey. In the past too, both parties had come face-to-face in a dispute over collections in the donation box of a local temple for bhandara. The latest feud in which they clashed was also over a similar row regarding collection for bhandara, the Mirzapur superintendent of police Abhinandan said.
All aspects of the case as well as previous incidents were being probed, the superintendent of police said, assuring strict action against those involved.