Amid public outrage over the Uttaranchal Police’s inability to act against four of its men accused of killing a woman four days ago, the High Court has adjourned for next week the petition of the accused seeking a stay on their arrest.A division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice V.S. Sirpurkar and Justice Rajesh Tandon has asked the state government to file a counter affidavit by next week.Manisha Chauhan was allegedly killed by the policemen near Rishikesh while she was travelling in a car driven by her husband. Womens groups, political parties and social organizations have held demonstrations demanding a CBI probe. An all party meeting at Roorkee demanded a CBI probe into the killing while National Congress Party (NCP) state President Suryakant Dhasmana with his supporters burnt a ‘effigy’ of the police demanding immediate arrest of the accused. Director General of Police (DGP) Kanchan Chaudhary has reportedly taken to task police officials over the controversy. Interestingly, one of the accused, who is a head constable, even briefed senior officers after the incident. However, he and the other accused went missing after a First Information Report (FIR) was formally lodged.Earlier, senior police officials gave an impression that the accused were with them. Now, dozens of police teams are raiding ‘‘hundreds’’ of places in search of the accused policemen.
