After cop killed by SIMI men, Opposition questions police, demands probe

Police at the 'encounter' spot on the hillocks of Acharpura village near Bhopal. Pic/AFP

Bhopal: More questions cropped up yesterday on the killing of eight SIMI men in Bhopal, even as the police asserted that it was a genuine encounter and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and other BJP leaders decried attempts to "politicise and communalise" the incident.

Too many holes in story
Congress leader Digvijay Singh led the opposition charge, saying the NIA probe, ordered into the jailbreak, should be court-monitored and called for a separate judicial probe into "why only undertrial activists of SIMI and Muslims were involved in jailbreaks" in Madhya Pradesh.

CM Shivraj Chouhan visits the family of jail warder Ramashankar Yadav who was allegedly killed during the jailbreak. Pic/PTI

Slamming the critics, Chouhan and Union minister Venkaiah Naidu alleged that some leaders and parties were playing "dirty politics" and attempting to communalise the issue dealing with the country's security. Chouhan reminded that the slain men were "dreaded terrorists" who could have wreaked devastation after fleeing the prison.

Claim genuine: IGP
However, IGP Yogesh Choudhary stood firm on the police version and said it was a genuine encounter. He said they will probe the authenticity of the videos or other "evidence".

Ramashankar Yadav

The eight SIMI activists were killed in an alleged encounter with police on the outskirts of Bhopal, hours after they escaped from the high-security central jail there, killing a security guard on Monday.

TV channels had shown footage purportedly from the encounter site, in which a policeman is seen pumping bullets into a man from close range after an unidentified person takes out what appears to be a knife, said to be in a plastic cover, and places it back.

4
country-made pistols, 3 knives seized from the men, say cops

29
No. of SIMI undertrials in Bhopal Central Jail