The Station House Officer (SHO) of Chaubeypur, Vinay Tiwari, who was suspended and arrested after the Bikru shootout, had allegedly begged history-sheeter Vikas Dubey and evoked their Brahmin caste honour to spare the life of Rahul Tiwari, who had filed an attempt to murder case against him, two days before the killing of eight policemen.
Coming out of hiding, Mr. Rahul Tiwari on Wednesday claimed this as he narrated the events that led to the raid of July 2-3 in Bikru village. It was on his police complaint that the police teams had gone to Bikru to arrest Dubey.
Thrashed him
Mr. Rahul Tiwari said that on June 27 while he was returning to his village, men linked to Dubey surrounded and thrashed him and even took away his motorbike and cash. Following this, Mr. Rahul Tiwari went to lodge a police complaint. The SHO, Mr. Vinay Tiwari, however, summoned him on July 1 and first went with him to the assault spot under the garb of investigation but later took him to the house of Dubey in Bikru village.
“Dubey and his henchmen thrashed me and put a rifle against my chest threatening to kill me,” Mr. Rahul Tiwari told a Hindi TV channel.
Mr. Vinay Tiwari was also threatened and scolded by Dubey, he added.
Mr. Rahul Tiwari then said the SHO, fearing that Dubey could kill him (Rahul) asked the history-sheeter not to take any drastic step evoking the “izzat of pandits.”
“SO sahab then took off his janeu [sacred thread] and said to Dubey, ‘brother, please consider the honour of Brahmins’,” said Mr. Rahul Tiwari.
Made to take vows
After this, Dubey called for some Gangajal (water from the Ganga) and gave it to both the SHO and Mr. Rahul Tiwari, and made them take vows. “Dubey was also made to promise that he would not kill me,” said Mr. Rahul Tiwari, adding that following this his two-wheeler was returned and he was sent home after some compromise.
However, the incident had shaken him up, and still fearing for his life, he went to the Senior Superintendent of Police, Kanpur, with his application, following which an FIR was lodged.
The original dispute between Dubey and Mr. Rahul Tiwari was over the latter’s in-laws’ ancestral land in Mohini Nawada village. Last week, Mr. Rahul Tiwari’s mother Suman had told The Hindu in Jadepur Parsa village that Rahul was married to a family that had three daughters and an adopted son, who got married into a family linked to Dubey in Bikru.
However, the adopted son, empowered by Dubey’s clout, wanted to grab all of their six bigah land, while Mr. Rahul Tiwari was in favour of equally distributing it among the four. It was with this background that Mr. Rahul Tiwari was allegedly assaulted on June 27, said his family.