Probe Launched Against IPS Officer Manzil Saini for Failure to Provide Security in High-Profile Murder

Manzil Saini, the first-ever woman district police chief of Lucknow, will face a departmental inquiry for laxity in providing proper security cover to trader Sarwan Sahu who was murdered in February 2017 and had sought security on multiple occasions.

Saini, who is a 2005 batch IPS officer, is presently on central deputation and is posted at the National Security Guard headquarters in Delhi as Deputy Inspector General since January 23, 2019.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had investigated the Sarwan Sahu murder case and found Saini’s negligence, following which the agency recommended a detailed enquiry against her on March 9, 2021.

According to a source, a notice sent to one of the witnesses read that the two-member enquiry committee comprising two senior IPS officers, Additional Director General (ADG) of state Intelligence, Bhagwan Swaroop and Superintendent of Police (SP), Intelligence for Ayodhya, Sanjeev Tyagi, had recently started a probe and started calling witnesses to record their statements in the incident since June 20.

It may be recalled that Sarwan Sahu was shot dead by two motorcycle-borne assailants who barged into his shop outside his house in a crowded residential locality under Saadatganj police station limits of Lucknow on February 1, 2017.

Sahu was fighting the murder case of his 27-year-old son Ayush Sahu, who was shot dead by a local gangster Aqeel Ansari after a brawl outside a beer shop on Campbell Road under Thakurganj police station on October 16, 2013.


Sarwan Sahu’s murder had exposed extreme negligence by cops, as he was not provided any police security despite repeatedly getting threats from the gangster, accused of his son’s murder to turn hostile in the case.

The CBI investigated the case on the order of the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court.

Gangster Ansari, who was the key suspect behind the entire conspiracy and named in the FIR lodged in the matter, was in jail when Sarwan Sahu was shot dead.


Ansari had surrendered in the Ayush murder case only five days before Sarwan Sahu murder on January 27, 2017, and thereafter he allegedly hatched the conspiracy of Sarwan’s murder.

Even earlier, Ansari had allegedly tried to eliminate Sarwan while being inside the jail. The attempt was foiled as Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force had arrested the four contract killers hired for the purpose on February 28, 2016.

Thereafter, Ansari got Sarwan Sahu framed in an alleged fake contract killing case with the help of some police personnel after coming out on bail. Three police personnel, including a crime branch Sub-Inspector, Dhirendra Shukla and two constables were sacked later for connivance with Ansari. - IANS