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Journalism of Courage
The Mathura police8217;s inability to distinguish between a criminal and a student cost 21-year-old Sonali Bose her life. Sonali, a second year postgraduate student of S N Medical College in Agra, was shot dead by the police on Tuesday night on the Agra-Mathura road as she and a friend were returning from dinner.
Sonali and Anurag Dhingra were returning in a Maruti Esteem to Agra at around 10.30 pm. According to the police, two mobile police vans asked the car to pull over near Hindustan College in Farah on suspicion. Anurag, who was driving, allegedly didn8217;t comply, and the police opened fire.
Nine policemen, including Farah8217;s Station Officer Rakesh Dev, have been suspended. Rakesh Kumar, Additional SP, Mathura, said, 8216;8216;The bullet has been recovered. It was a police bullet. There was some confusion. The final report will ascertain the facts8217;8217;.
Anurag later told the police Sonali had urged him not to stop since she thought they were being waylaid by gangsters. Anurag said he heard the sound of firing, and turned to see Sonali slump into her seat. A .303 bullet had pierced her neck.
Sonali died before she could be hospitalised. Her father, C K Ghosh, a consultant to Kolkata8217;s Jute Corporation of India, arrived in Agra today with his wife. Sonali was cremated in Tajganj.
Sonali8217;s death sparked off considerable unrest among the college students, who held a demonstration and threatened an indefinite strike if the policemen weren8217;t hauled up.
