In Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, a dispute over tobacco led to the death of a school teacher, who was shot by a “drunk” chief constable of the Uttar Pradesh Police, the police claimed on Monday.
Superintendent of Police (City) Satyanarain Parjapat claimed that the victim, identified as Dharmendra Kumar, was a member of a team from the education department in Varanasi that had carried answer sheets for the Uttar Pradesh Board high school test to a college in Muzaffarnagar.
The police crew that companied Kumar and a few other Varanasi officials included the chief constable, Chander Prakash.
According to Mr. Parjapat, on Sunday night, Kumar and Prakash got into a fight in the car.
“The constable was under the influence of alcohol and was constantly demanding tobacco from the teacher. However, when the teacher did not give tobacco, an argument broke out between them and the policeman opened fire at him using his service weapon,” Mr Parjapat said.
On March 14, the police team and school officials left Varanasi and submitted their answer sheets to institutions in neighboring districts.
They arrived at the SD Inter College on Sunday night in the Muzaffarnagar Civil Line neighborhood after submitting the copies in Prayagraj, Shahjahanpur, Pilibhit, Moradabad, and Bijnor. At that point, the incident occurred as they were waiting in the car for the college gate to open.
According to Mr. Parjapat, the injured teacher was taken to a hospital and later declared dead.
In addition to filing a complaint against the chief constable, the police have sent the deceased for a post-mortem. Further investigation in going on.
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