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Vajpayee calls for probe into college girl's killing

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has called for an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the killing by the police of college girl Smita Bahaduri.

On January 14, the Meerut police attacked a car carrying Bahaduri and her friend Mohit, under the impression that they had links with the underworld. They shot the girl dead and injured her friend.

The girl, a student of mathematics in the final year at Meerut College, had left home to meet one of her teachers. But soon she found an Ambassador car following her. Worried, she quickened her stride. Finding her college friend Mohit coming up in his car, she asked him for a lift.

But the car got stuck in a mustard field later, at around 1930 IST. The Meerut police, who believed there were criminals inside, accidentally traced the car. A team led by Station House Officer Arun Kumar Kaushik, along with constables Surinder Singh and Bhagwan Sahay, followed the car into the fields and opened fire, killing Bahaduri and seriously injuring the youth.

"I gave Smita a lift because she feared that an Ambassador car was following her. But I never expected that the matter would end in her death," Mohit said later.

Apparently, the error in identification came to light only after Meerut Superintendent of Police Rajinder Singh reached the spot at 2000 hours. He found that the policemen had disappeared from the scene, leaving the bodies of Bahaduri and the injured Mohit.

The Meerut police soon arrested Arun Kumar and Surinder Singh. But the second constable, Bhagwan Sahay, is still absconding.

Bahaduri's parents are yet to come to terms with their loss. But her father, S K Bahaduri, said he would go to the National Human Rights Commission for justice.

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