How police let killers escape

22-07-2010
How police let killers escape
Times of India
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIA&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW&GZ=T&AW=1279772048656

Environment activist Amit Jethava was killed right in front of policemen inside a patrolling vehicle. Eye witnesses say the cops did precious little to chase the assailants or shift Jethava to hospital.

At 8.45 pm, when Jethava came out of the Satyamev complex and was shot, a police patrol car was parked at a short distance. Eye witnesses say two cops rushed out of the car after hearing the solitary shot that killed Jethava. They saw the victim falling on the road and rushed back inside the car to send wireless messages.

Jethava by then had turned and lunged at his assailants. He got hold of one of them. However, owing to heavy blood loss, he lost the grip and collapsed on the road.

The police started chasing the killers much later. "Sniffer dogs took us to the escape route of the goons. One of them had slipped and fallen in a muddy stretch of road. However, after some distance the trail died out, suggesting they could have fled in a vehicle from there," said police investigators. Eye witnesses claimed that while Jethava was lying on the road with blood oozing out of the bullet wound in his back, he was mumbling something. The cops, however, made no attempt to record what could have been his dying declaration.

The complaint of murder in this case has been lodged by Indrasinh Vaghela, a constable of Sola police station. Vaghela says he was returning home from work when he heard the shot and rushed to the site.

Vaghela in his complaint said that when he reached the spot, he saw the killers trying to escape but could not catch up with them. This sounds incredible as the two assailants escaped on foot, while Vaghela was on his motorbike.