Story of their Assassins continues ………….

On 13 September 2003, Head Constable Baburam, Constable Ramchander and Constable Neeraj Kumar of the armed police of Uttar Pradesh stood at one such bus stand in Roorkee, a city in the Haridwar district of Uttarakhand in north India. They had in their custody none other than Tyagi. It had been over two years since he had been arrested by the Special Cell of Delhi Police. He had been moved from Tihar Jail to the Muzaffarnagar district jail in Uttar Pradesh, as he was required to appear before courts in that jurisdiction. He was being taken to the Roshnabad district jail of Haridwar from where he had to be produced before the Roshnabad court the following day.

It was an unusually hot and humid post-monsoon afternoon, typical of the plains of north India. The policemen, lugging their .303 rifles, were perspiring in the oppressive heat, their uniforms drenched with sweat and their alertness dipping by the minute. Their detenue Bhupinder Tyagi was equally agitated and fidgety, but not because of the muggy air. He was waiting, rather impatiently, for his freedom.

At about 4 p.m., a red motorcycle with registration number UP 07C 78X1 drove slowly by the group and stopped a couple of yards away. The two riders got off, approached the policemen and began abusing them. Before the cops could react they were pushed to the ground. Tyagi broke free and ran to the bike as did his rescuers. They hopped on to the motorcycle with Tyagi in the middle and began riding away. One of them saw Constable Neeraj Kumar run after them and opened fire at the policeman. Kumar was hit in the chest and fell down. However, almost as a reflex action, from his prone position Kumar aimed his .303 rifle at them and pulled the trigger.

To be continued …..….