Five UP Police Personnel Suspended After Gurugram Raid

GURUGRAM: Five police personnel from Bijnor have been suspended over alleged procedural violations during an interstate raid in Gurugram that ended with a 35-year-old man dying by suicide, according to the Uttar Pradesh Police action announced over the weekend. A departmental inquiry has also been ordered, shifting attention from the wanted suspect the team came to arrest to the way the operation itself was authorised and conducted.

The suspended team comprises a sub-inspector and four constables posted at Nangal police station in Bijnor district. Police said they travelled to a rented house in Gurugram's Rajiv Nagar on the morning of 25 August while tracing a 27-year-old man wanted in an attempt-to-murder case. The wanted man was taken into custody. His friend, who was staying at the property, allegedly shot himself with a country-made firearm and later died during treatment.

Inquiry focuses on interstate procedure

Bijnor Superintendent of Police Krishna Kumar Bishnoi said an internal inquiry found that the visiting team had not informed senior officers and had not obtained the required written permission before carrying out the operation. The suspensions are an administrative action pending departmental proceedings; they do not by themselves decide criminal liability. The inquiry will need to examine the team's movement record, briefing, local coordination and actions immediately before and after the gunshot.

Interstate arrests are common in the NCR, where people routinely live, work and move across Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. That geography makes procedure more important, not less. Advance coordination with the police station holding local jurisdiction establishes who is entering a neighbourhood, why they are there and what support may be required. It also creates a contemporaneous record if an operation later results in injury, use of force or a disputed account.

The Bijnor case the team was pursuing arose from an alleged firing in Tisotra village on 15 August. Police had registered an attempt-to-murder case against two people. One had already been arrested, while the second was traced to Gurugram. The man who died was not the principal target described in the raid account, although Bijnor police said he had several previous cases. A criminal record, even where verified, does not answer whether the operation followed mandatory safeguards.

Two investigations now run in parallel

There are now two distinct questions. The first concerns the underlying firing case and the allegations against the man arrested in Gurugram. The second concerns the conduct of the police team and the circumstances in which the other occupant gained access to a firearm and suffered the fatal injury. Treating these as separate files will help prevent the allegations in one from being used as a shortcut in the other.

The departmental record should establish whether Gurugram Police was alerted before entry, whether the team carried a written departure or raid authorisation, who supervised the arrest and how the scene was secured. Ballistic and forensic evidence, call records and statements from occupants and neighbours may also be relevant to the local investigation into the death.

Suspending five personnel signals that Bijnor Police found the preliminary procedural concerns serious enough to remove the team from duty while facts are examined. The public value of that step will depend on what follows: a time-bound inquiry, a reasoned finding and clear instructions for future interstate operations across the NCR.