Terming the FIRs lodged by the Uttar Pradesh police as “borrowed from the movie scripts”, “fanciful” and “highly exaggerated”, the Allahabad High Court recently granted interim protection from arrest to the person accused in the case.
Expressing serious concern over the manner in which an FIR was drafted by the Bahraich police, the Division Bench comprising Justice Abdul Moin and Justice Pramod Kumar Srivastava in its order dated February 16, pointed out a significant inconsistency in the timeline recorded in the same.
The case pertains to an FIR lodged against Akbar Ali and two others. They were booked under the Arms Act and the Uttar Pradesh Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act, 1955. According to the FIR, a police team acted on information received from an informer regarding alleged cow slaughter. Upon reaching the spot, police cautioned the accused by saying “Tum log police se ghir chuke ho, Aatm Samarpan kar do” (you have been gheraoed by the police. You should surrender).
The FIR further read that the police overheard the accused making remarks like ‘ujala hone wala hai’ (dawn was about to break). It also alleges that the accused exhorted each other to fire at the police personnel as they were heard saying “Yeh... police wale hain, inko goli maro, bachkar nahin jaane chahiye”. Police also described how one of the accused yelled ‘hai goli lag gai’ (I am hit with a bullet).
