3 cops suspended in Fatehpur over robbery probe lapse

Prayagraj: IG (Prayagraj range) Ajay Mishra on Thursday suspended three policemen posted in Fatehpur on charges of dereliction of duty.

The IG acted on a report submitted by the Fatehpur ASP, which found SHO (Kishanpur) Bacche Lal Prasad, station officer (Khakhreru) Vidhya Prakash Singh, and Vijaypur police outpost in-charge SI Dheerendra Pandey negligent in handling a robbery case. Four armed miscreants on two motorcycles had allegedly robbed a cattle trader of Rs 3.5 lakh in cash and a mobile phone.

He told TOI that the robbery took place on June 1 on the Pauli–Sudhwapur village road under the Khakhreru police station limits. The victim, Shamshad, is a resident of Naraini village and is engaged in the cattle trade.

During the probe, it was found that the errant police outpost in-charge neither informed his seniors—SHO Kishanpur and SO Khakhreru—nor other senior police officials, despite personally inspecting the crime scene on the day of the incident. The SI reportedly briefed the SHO concerned about the sequence of events the following day, but no action was initiated. When the IG came to know about the alleged negligence of the three police officials, he directed the ASP to conduct an inquiry and submit a report.