Man killed in ‘encounter’ while police came to arrest robber, tension grips Mewat

Sumedha Sharma

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Tribune News Service

Gurugram, August 8

Yet another controversy has stormed Mewat as a youth was allegedly gunned down by Uttrakhand Police in an “encounter”.

Naheda village resident Sahib was killed in Patakpur last night when a special team of Uttarakhand Police aided by Mewat police had come to nab a robber but had to retort to firing as villagers allegedly attacked them.

The police insist he was killed in cross firing. The police claimed that the deceased was probably an aide of the robber who helped him escape.

The villagers, however, insisted he was an innocent man who was killed on suspicion and have thus demanded immediate action against the erring cops and compensation of Rs 50,000 for him.

Following a three-hour long ‘mahapanchayat’ addressed by likes of Congress leader Aftab Ahmed, the villagers are sitting on ‘dharna’ with Sahib’s body refusing to bury him till their demands are met.

He was only brother of seven sisters and drove a truck along with his father to run his home.

Police have booked 150 villagers of Patakpur naming 45, including a woman, for attacking the police.

The drama started late last night when assisted by Mewat police, Uttrakhand Police came looking for a local resident Shabbir.

Shabbir was wanted for a robbery in a mobile showroom in Dehradun.

He was hiding in a room in the fields when police nabbed him. The information somehow went to village and hundreds of villagers, including men, woman and even teenagers, rushed to the fields and attacked police and freed Shabbir.

In no mood to give up, police caught him from village lanes but village women attacked the police and freed him again.

The Bollywood style struggle between police and villagers continued for two hours before the mob reached Punhana Luhinga road.

It was here that villagers allegedly fired at police that fired back and 22-year-old Sahib was caught in firing even as Shabbir managed to flee.

“This is another addition to long list of police atrocities on us. They killed him because they were suspicious of him. They murdered him and should be booked. We will not lay him to peace till our demands are met and if they ignore us till Thursday we will go for aggressive protests,” the mahapanchayat said in its statement.

Meanwhile, owing to tension in the area heavy police has been deployed and sources claim that Muslim panchayats too have started joining dharna which may snowball into a major controversy tomorrow.