ASSEMBLY POLL '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS '98
ARCHIVES

Who killed jailer Tiwari?

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

The Lucknow police still have no idea who gunned down District Jail Superintendent R K Tiwari at a busy road junction in the heart of the state capital on Thursday.

The murder, committed by men on motorcycles, has sent shock waves through the Kalyan Singh administration that has been boasting about having brought the crime situation under control.

The officer was shot at point blank range when his official jeep halted at the crossing traffic signal, barely a stone's throw from the governor's house and the state secretariat.

With the city police busy in the cultural activities of the annual police week, investigations into the jailer's murder made no headway even after 48 hours of the crime.

Tiwari, who was reputed to be an upright officer, had rubbed several criminals the wrong way by putting an end to the undue privileges and luxuries they enjoyed in prison. Among those who suffered at his hand was gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, a Bahujan Samaj Party legislator.

The jail superintendent's approach had also annoyed two other big gangsters, one of them the kin of a well-known politician and the other a Lucknow University student, Abhay Singh.

The police believe either one of the undertrails or a prisoner who had been in his care was behind the conspiracy. Their suspicion is currently focussed on dreaded gangster Rajesh Yadav, who is believed to have gunned sown another jailer, A K Gautam, barely 16 months ago. Gautam was shot dead outside the jail premises in October 1997.

Jailers are routinely murdered in Uttar Pradesh, with at least 10 jail official having been killed in the past two decades. But the bureaucracy also took no step to protect Tiwari though he had sought protection.

"Tiwari had been pleading before the government that he required two gunners", a senior police officer said. What pained those close to Tiwari most was the failure of the district administration to grant him a personal arms licence for which he had applied in October 1997 after the murder of his colleague, Gautam.

On Thursday evening, Tiwari had finished attending a meeting at the district magistrate's residence and was on his way to the district jail.

When his jeep stopped at the traffic junction next to Raj Bhavan, the motorcycle-borne assailants, who had apparently been following him from the magistrate's residence, rode up to the jeep. Before anyone realised what was happening, they had shot the officer with a silenced revolver. He dropped dead on the driver.

"It was only when jail superintendent sahib fell on my side and a bullet hit me that I realised what had happened," said the driver, who was undergoing treatment at the King George Medical College in Lucknow.

"You see, there was no sound of firing. I could see the man on the motorcycle pillion pointing something at us before he drove off," the driver said.

Even the traffic constable on duty at the junction saw the motorcycle stop near the jeep and then speed away before the driver screamed for help.

Tiwari was rushed to the nearby civil hospital but was declared dead on admission.

After the initial shock, the jail staff accused the state government of callousness, which, they allege, led to the killing.

The UP Jail Employees Association is contemplating a state-wide strike to press its longstanding demand for "adequate security" for the staff. Association Vice-President Jagat Pal Singh asked, "Why is the administration indifferent towards the needs of the jail staff? They were rarely provided any security, even though they have to interact with dreaded criminals, who find them [jail officials] soft targets.

While Tiwari was disliked by the goons, other prisoners had much good to say about him.

Dharam Singh Rawat, a former IAS officer was among the pioneers of the "anti--corruption movement" in the elite service who was recently released from the jail after a trumped-up charge was slapped on him. "Tiwari paid the hard price for the much-needed reforms he wanted to bring about in the jail," he said.

According to another jail inmate, "Tiwari always showed concern for the welfare of the jail inmates. He even introduced a computer training course." Tiwari also had the jail canteen renovated, he said, adding that after his death, the inmates a disillusioned lot.

Tell us what you think of this report