New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh journalist Vikram Joshi had reportedly spotted some miscreants – who later shot him – lurking outside his sister’s house in Mata Colony in Ghaziabad on the night of July 20 and informed the local police post in-charge about them.
However, according to his family members, the officer did not act on his complaint. Joshi was shot dead by the same men two hours later.
The family of the 35-year-old journalist alleged on Thursday that Joshi had seen the men who shot him, informed police and then made several calls to police for help. The police post in-charge said he would be looking into the matter the following day, they alleged.
Vikram Joshi. Photo: PTI
Joshi had gone to his sister’s house to attend his niece’s birthday party. At about 10.30 pm, when he and his two daughters started for home, the assailants attacked him. While one rained blows on Joshi, one of them pulled out a firearm and shot him in the head. Joshi immediately collapsed to the ground. He succumbed to his injuries on July 22.
His nephew has been quoted in news reports as having said that timely police action could have saved Joshi’s life. “On the night of the shooting, the suspects, including Ravi and Chotu, were seen near our house in Mata Colony. When my uncle (Joshi) saw them, he called the local police post in-charge around 8.30 pm and told him about it. But the post in-charge told him that he will look into the matter the next morning,” he said.
Vimal added, “Two hours later, when my uncle left the house on his two-wheeler with his daughters, the men shot him. Had the police post in-charge acted in time, my uncle would be alive today.”
The report also quoted Superintendent of Police (City) Manish Mishra as saying that the police post in-charge has already been suspended. “All complaints raised by Joshi’s family are being looked into and an inquiry against the police post in-charge has been initiated. It is being taken up by circle officer (city 1). Anyone found guilty will not be spared.”
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The firing incident was a fallout of an earlier episode in which the accused had harassed Joshi’s niece. On July 16, the two sides had got into an altercation over the issue and Joshi had made a complaint to the police. But his family insisted that the police did not register a case of harassment against the accused and that a separate FIR in the matter was only registered a day after Joshi was shot.
The main FIR into the murder has named four persons as accused for direct assault. They include prime suspect Ravi Kumar and Shahnoor alias Chotu (who is alleged to have shot Joshi with a country-made firearm). Police have arrested both the main suspects, and seven others, for the crime.