DHAULRI (MUZAFFARNAGAR): One policeman was killed here on Tuesday night and four others are being held captive by activists of the Bharatiya Kisan Union led by Mr Mahender Singh Tikait. The dead cop’s body lying on the roof of a house had begun to rot by Wednesday evening. The PAC had taken up positions around the village and the situation was volatile,

The BKU chief said that the captive policemen would be released only when the Chief Minister, Mr Kalyan Singh, visits the village, He refused to hand over the body of the police constable who was killed to the authorities.

Jab tak CM nahi awega, tab tak yeh gaon yuh khi tyun jami rahegi, (till the CM arrives this village would stay put as it is). He told around 5,000 BKU activists from different parts of western UP. Most of the BKU men had come from the neighboring Sisauli village where they arrived for the monthly BKU panchayat.

Mr Tikait ordered the BKU cadres not to leave the village till the matter was resolved to their satisfaction. He asked them to be prepared for an attack by the PAC at night Apne pas jitne bhi license. wali sab le aao is gaon, he told the BKU men, ‘yeh aap sab logon khi pariksha ki gadi hai.’ (Bring your weapons to this village both the licensed ones and illicit ones. The time has come to test you).

The villagers claimed that the policemen had come to the village on Tuesday night to commit a dacoity, but were engaged in a shoot-out with the villagers, which resulted in the death of one cop and the capture of four others, including a daroga. They said that an unknown number of policemen escaped including the station officer of the Titoali police station, Mr K.P. Verma.

‘The four captive cops were being kept under lock and key a pair each in two houses. Long line of BKU men and women kept coming to peep in through the windows of the rooms for a glimpse of the unfortunate men.

The incident took place at 11 p.m. on Tuesday night. A villager, Jaipal Kashyap, who was one of two villagers injured in the shoot-out, said he was sleeping in his house when he heard shots being fired. I raced out with a lathi and bumped into a man in police uniform, but before he could do anything I caught him in a bear hug. I succeeded in snatching away his rifle. But then somebody shot me and I fainted. Jaipal received an injury on his shoulder. He sat on a cot with the other injured villager, Karnu, as the curious gathered around them.

But while the villagers claim that the police men had come to commit a dacoity, the captive cops refuse this. Inspector S.C.Pande, second officer Titoali police station said from behind a barred window of the room that the police team had come to the village to apprehend a criminal on information provided by an informer.

We were led by station officer K.P. Verma. The informer was also with us. On reaching the house, where we expected the Criminal to arrive, we took positions on the roof of the neighboring house. We even took along with us a bucket of water as we expected a long night. But suddenly somebody fired on us and Harminder Singh fell. Someone warned us throw down our weapons and J and Constable Rajwal Singh complied immediately. The SO sahab, however, jumped from the roof and escaped. We were brought to this room after that, he said. The villagers and BKU men who had gathered before the window of the room kept mouthing obscenities at the two cops when SC Pande was narrating his side of the story. A long stream of men and women were also making a beeline to the roof of the house where Constable Harinder Singh’s body was lying with congealed pools of blood near his feet and head. Bare-headed his rifle was still slung around his shoulder. The villagers said that he was shot from point-blank range by Chaudhary Hari Singh’s son, Jasbir Singh. Neither the father nor the son was in the village. The villagers brushed aside all queries regarding their whereabouts.

Gun-wielding youths of the BKU guided the men and women breaking in to see the captives from the neighboring villages. Many men from these villages said that the news of the shoot-out was received in their villages early on Wednesday morning. BKU men came on tractors and asked all of us to come to Dhaulri. The BKU chief was informed at 3:30. He arrived at the village immediately and since then has been dictating his terms to the authorities from the village,

Article extracted from this publication >> July 26, 1991