Confirming the worst suspicions about the killing of Army jawan Amitesh Kumar in Paliganj last week, a Patna Superintendent of Police has said the jawan was murdered in coldblood by Paliganj policemen and a weapon planted to make it look like an encounter. In his report to his superiors, Amit Kumar, SP (Rural), said Amitesh, who had participated in Operation Parakram, was cornered by police constable Sandeep Kumar after a brief chase and gunned down at Ballipakkar. The SP has cited as witness a woman named Bunni Devi. It was in her hut that Amitesh tried to take refuge while fleeing from Sandeep. She apparently pleaded before the constable not to shoot Amitesh. The SP recommended that the constable be booked for murder and the local police station officer be charged with criminal conspiracy for faking an encounter. The damaging report categorically states that Amitesh was unarmed yet the police managed to show recovery of a country-made pistol and ammunition from the spot. The SP said the recovery of the pistol from the roof of the hut of Baleshwar Paswan should have been immediate. But the recovery, the report mentions, was made much later although the roof was visible to all from quite a distance. The local police had stated that the pistol was found on the roof by a chowkidar, Dinesh Paswan. He was listed as a witness by the police. But the SP called it a conspiracy to cover the ‘‘murder.’’ Stating that the Paliganj SHO Vivekanand Singh was not present at the time of the incident, the SP’s report maintains he was part of the conspiracy to pass off the ‘‘murder’’ as an encounter. The report levels the same charge against chowkidar Dinesh Paswan. The report also raises questions about the two accomplices of Amitesh. The local police claimed that the victim was accompanied by two miscreants, allegedly involved in motorcycle-lifting cases.
