.The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lashed out at the Hemant Soren government after a woman sub-inspector on night patrolling duty was allegedly mowed down by a pick-up van, allegedly smuggling cattle, when she tried to stop it for checking near Hulhundu village in Ranchi in the wee hours on Wednesday, police said.
According to police, the incident occurred around 3am when the officer, Sandhya Topno, in presence of two other constables, tried to stop the vehicle but it ran over the officer; killing her on spot.
Kishore Kaushal, SP, Ranchi, said the driver of the vehicle, identified as Nigaar Khan, has been taken into custody and is being questioned.
“The vehicle has also been seized,” the SP said, adding that one more person was present inside the vehicle, for whom a search is on. “We received inputs from neighbouring Khunti district about a vehicle that was being tracked from Gumla district. Based on this input, our team, led by sub-inspector Sandhya, was on the road to intercept the vehicle. But the vehicle mowed her down. She was taken to hospital where she was declared brought dead,” said Kaushal. “Efforts are on to complete the investigation quickly and get the guilty punished,” he said.
The incident sparked political slugfest with the BJP hitting out at the Hemant Soren government accusing it of giving free hand to smugglers due to vote bank politics. Demanding a CBI inquiry into the incident, BJP’s national vice president and former chief minister Raghubar Das said incidents of cow smuggling which is banned in the state has risen since Hemant Soren came to power in the state. “The morale of the criminals has gone up to an extent that even policemen are not safe in this state. The cow smugglers have gone unchecked under Hemant Soren goverment. I fear that this case will also go Rupa Tirkey way as it is related to this government vote bank politics,” said Das.
Defending the state government and police, Jharkhand Congress spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan said the BJP is making irresponsible statements. “The police have already arrested one of the accused, and investigation is on. The police will speed trial the case,” said Ranjan.
