Allahabad:
The sub-inspector of police who had shot dead a lawyer inside the district court premises here on Wednesday, triggering violent protests across the city, has claimed that he had fired in “self defence” after being physically assaulted by some advocates.
He also said he had fled the spot and remained in hiding for two days to save his life.
Sub-inspector (SI) Shailendra Kumar Singh, who was arrested last evening at Prayag railway station here and has been kept at the Naini Central Prison on the outskirts of the city, gave a statement in front of Additional SP (City) Rajesh Kumar Yadav late last night.
According to Yadav, Singh has claimed that he had fired “in self-defence” after he was “attacked by a group of unruly advocates” with whom he had “an argument over a minor issue”.
Singh has alleged that “violence was initiated by the lawyers” who “kicked and punched me and hit me with a stick and even tried to snatch away my service revolver”.
The SI has claimed that he had “intended to fire in the air to scare away the attackers but unfortunately one of the advocates got hit by the bullet”.
He defended his fleeing the spot saying “had I stayed on the court premises, where I had come in connection with a case I am investigating, I would have been lynched by the mob.
“Nevertheless, I returned to the Nari Bari outpost where I was posted and submitted my revolver before leaving for Lucknow where I stayed at my nephew’s place waiting for tempers to calm down”.
Meanwhile, after meeting the accused sub-inspector at the jail, his wife Sapna has written to the in-charge of Colonelganj police station, under which the site of the incident falls, requesting that an FIR be lodged against the advocates who had “made an attempt on the life” of her husband under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.
