UP govt sacks Jhansi cop who allegedly told gangster how to avoid an encounter

The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday sacked a police officer allegedly trying to strike a deal to help a gangster escape possible death in an encounter, said a government official who did not want to be named.

Suneet Kumar Singh, station house officer of Mauranipur police station in Jhansi district was earlier suspended after an audio clip surfaced on Sunday where he is heard telling the gangster how he could possibly avoid an encounter by ‘managing’ an MLA.

It has now emerged that Singh was a rogue cop and an embarrassed government has started an exercise to weed out similar police officers.

The state government is likely to order a probe and take action against the then home department secretary who had revoked all charges against Singh in other cases on March 8, 2017, people familiar with the matter said. The clean chit had paved the way for Singh to be reinstated as SHO, they added.

Sigh had eight cases of misconduct, including serious charges like removing the name of criminals from investigation, intimidating police constables, hobnobbing with criminal gangs and firing on the staff of a bar in Kolkata.

“Giving clean chit to the police officer involved in criminal activities is a serious matter and appropriate action will be taken against him. It shows that senior officers in the state government were hand in glove with the tainted policeman who was indulged in criminal activities and was sent to jail,” said a senior state government officer.

The reinstatement of the tainted officer as SHO has embarrassed the state government.

A home department officer, who refused to be named, said the procedure to identify tainted police officers, who got field postings, had started.

A list of such officers was being prepared, he said, adding they would be removed from their posts and face departmental action.

Home department principal secretary Arvind Kumar said the state government had already ordered a probe into the Jhansi episode and sought a report from the senior superintendent of police.

An audio clip, purportedly of Singh, asking a gangster Lekhraj Yadav to ‘manage’ the local BJP MLA Rajiv Singh and BJP district unit president Sanjay Dubey to save himself from getting killed in an encounter went viral on the social media on Sunday. The state government suspended Singh and ordered a probe.

The state police had also ordered probe into an alleged fake encounter staged by Singh on the UP- Madhya Pradesh border on Friday in which Lekhraj Yadav managed to escape .