In one more indictment of the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh, a journalist was shot at by assailants in Ghaziabad on Monday night. The attack came days after he complained against harassment of his niece by some locals at the Vijay Nagar police station.
By Tuesday evening, nine persons, including two of the three main accused named in the FIR, were arrested, police said.
Vikram Joshi, who works for a local newspaper was returning home with his daughters on a motorcycle when he was waylaid by at least half-a-dozen assailants at Mata Colony in the Pratap Vihar area of the city, officers said.
Condition critical
The journalist received serious injuries, including a bullet wound on the head, and was moved to the Yashoda Hospital where his condition was said to be critical.
Kalanidhi Naithani, Senior Superintendent of Police, Ghaziabad, said they received information about the attack on a journalist late on Monday night. “Nine persons, including Ravi, who allegedly opened fire, have been nabbed by the police team. Some of them were known to the family of Mr. Joshi and it seems Ravi and Mr. Joshi had a dispute in the past as well,” he said.
Prima facie it seemed they attacked Mr. Joshi because he had lodged a complaint against them, he added. “In fact, Ravi had admitted that he engineered the plot.”
An FIR has been registered under Sections 307, 506 and 34 of the IPC on the complaint of Aniket Joshi, the journalist’s brother.
Mr. Naithani has suspended the police post-in-charge and constituted a departmental inquiry under a DSP-rank officer to look into the lapses. Mr. Aniket told reporters that the accused had given a life threat to Mr. Joshi after he lodged a complaint against them.
CCTV footage
The incident was caught on a CCTV camera where some men could be seen hitting the journalist on a busy road before a shot was fired from close proximity. In the video, when Mr. Joshi falls down, the assailants run away and the journalist’s elder daughter rushes towards him.
Aniket told reporters that some miscreants had misbehaved with his niece and the journalist had lodged a complaint with senior police officers against them at the Vijay Nagar police station. “The police had lodged a complaint two days ago but no arrest was made,” he said.
By evening, several political figures assembled at Yashoda Hospital. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi hit out at the State government and described it as “jungle raj” in a tweet.
