New Delhi/Lucknow: While the Indian democracy is based on the unassailable subservience of the security apparatus to the democratically-elected government, a section of the police force in the nation’s most populous and politically-significant state of Uttar Pradesh has chosen to mutiny.

On Friday, a large section of the police force, men and women, drawn from several police stations of the state reported to duty sporting black bands on their arms in solidarity with a killer cop and in protest against action taken against him.

Samajwadi Party (SP) spokesperson Rajiv Rai told MyNation that chief minister Yogi Adityanath had failed the state and its people. “The law and order in the state is completely broken. Yogi has lost control of the police and other departments too. He is no more in control of his government,” Rai said.

What has driven the BJP-ruled state governed by one of the most prominent Hindutva icons from the right-wing stable, Yogi Adityanath, on the edge is the infamous and brazen killing of Apple’s area manager Vivek Tiwari on Saturday. The techie was gunned down apparently for not stopping for checking by police constable Prashant Chaudhary in the Indira Nagar area of Lucknow. Chaudhary and his colleague Sandeep Yadav were arrested and subsequently sacked for involvement in the case. 

The state government and the police department had, of course, taken note the matter, but look helpless or at best confused. Uttar Pradesh Police PRO told MyNation that the matter is being looked into even as top officials refused to come on record in the matter. “We are investigating the matter of black bands,” PRO said as he held on to the cellphone of Lucknow police chief Kalanidhi Naithani.

The mutiny started not on Friday, but even before. A crowdfunding campaign was started to cover the legal expenses of the accused policeman the very next day of Tiwai being killed. According to bank statements of Chaudhary’s wife, Rakhi Malik, also a constable with Lucknow police, almost Rs 5.5 lakh were collected in her account till October 1.

From the start, the Lucknow police seems to have been on a slippery ground. The victim’s female colleague, Sana Khan, who was with him when the incident happened, and thus is an eyewitness, had been taken to the Gomtinagar police station after the incident where the accused’s wife is also posted.

A related question would be how a husband and wife came to be stationed in the same police station.

Also, while SSP Lucknow Naithani was holding a presser declaring that Chaudhary had been sent to jail, the accused was himself addressing the media from the Gomtinagar police station.

The role of top cops of the force was questioned also by none other than Uttar Pradesh’s law and justice minister Brijesh Pathak. Pathak said that he agreed with the victim’s family that top cops were trying to cover up the matter. Pathak had conceded that the first FIR in the matter had been worded intentionally in order to dilute the matter and that there would be an investigation against the police too. The first FIR, filed by Tiwari’s colleague Khan, had not named the two cops. Later a second FIR by the victim’s wife had named Chaudhary and one of his colleagues.