Policeman shot Vivek Tiwari from front, says Eye-witness

The eyewitness, in the Vivek Tiwari death case, on Tuesday revealed that Constable Prashant Chaudhary, shot the former from the front.

"We were returning home when 2 bike-borne police personnel - Prashant and Sandeep-came from front and Prashant shot at him. Bullet was fired from front. Few truck-drivers were present there but they didn't help," she told reporters here.

Chaudhary, allegedly shot Tiwari after the latter refused to stop his car when asked by patrolling personnel.

"The car was never stationary and it was moving. The police had no reason for coming and shouting at us. They may have misunderstood the presence of a lady in the car. It made no sense of what they did and why they did it. My statements have been misrepresented. It wasn't that I felt like a bullet has been fired (as reported by some media) but in reality, a bullet was fired. He had no injury in his head and he was hit on his chin," the eyewitness had earlier stated.

The postmortem report of Tiwari, had revealed that he died due to a gunshot injury on the left side of his chin.

During the



preliminary investigation, the cop who shot Tiwari had claimed that he fired at the latter's car in self-defence as it tried to run over his motorbike.

Speaking from Gomti Nagar police station, Prashant Chaudhary had said, "I did not shoot him. He hit me with the car first. I asked him to come out of the car. He reversed his car twice and tried to run over me. I was on the ground and took out my pistol only to warn him. The pistol was loaded and a shot got fired. I did not fire and had no intention of shooting him. The man fled from the spot after being hit by the bullet."

Tiwari was admitted to the hospital at 2:05 am on early Sunday morning and breathed his last at around 2:25 am.

The police handling the case did not inform the deceased's wife till 3 am on the same day. His killing has pointed fingers at the Yogi Adityanath-led government's capability to maintain law and order situation in the region.

The Uttar Pradesh chief minister has assured that his government will provide all assistance to the family of Tiwari and said that "such criminal offences will not be accepted by the government".