By M M Staff
New Delhi : Days after one of the most brutal crackdowns by UP police on Muslims who were protesting against Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and NRC National Register of Citizens, an FIR was lodged against the station house officer (SHO) of Nahtaur Rajesh Kumar Solanki over the death of 20-year-old Mohammad Suleiman in UP’s Bijnor district during the protests .
Two Muslim youths Suleiman and Anas were killed by the Bijnor police on December 20, soon after protests escalated after the afternoon namaz. Solanki, who has now been transferred to the District Crime Record Bureau (DCRB), local outpost in-charge Ashish Tomar, constable Mohit Kumar and three other “unidentified” policemen have been named in the FIR filed by Suleiman’s brother Shoaib, Satya Prakash Singh, the new SHO of Nahtaur told the Indian Express.
Singh said Solanki has now been transferred to the District Crime Record Bureau (DCRB). Bijnor Additional SP (Rural) Vishwajeet Srivastava said Solanki has been transferred from the Nahtaur police station “because he was injured and could not work”.
Sanjeev Tyagi, Superintendent of Police, Bijnor, had confirmed to The Sunday Express on December 23 that Suleiman had died after he was shot by constable Mohit Kumar in “self-defence”.
“One cartridge was retrieved from Suleiman’s body. The ballistic report confirms that this was shot from the service pistol of Mohit Kumar. Mohit Kumar (constable) also suffered a bullet injury. The bullet taken from Mohit Kumar’s stomach was found to be shot from a country-made weapon,” Tyagi had said. Police had not found any weapon on Suleiman.
Suleiman, a third-year undergraduate student, had come home from Noida where he stayed with his maternal uncle to prepare for the civil services examinations. His family later alleged that Sulieman was picked up by the police on his way back from the mosque and was shot point-blank near a madrasa.