An association of police constables is organising a three-day campaign from Friday to protest the arrest and suspension of two of their colleagues after an Apple executive was shot dead amid revelations that pick holes in the shooter’s version.

The Uttar Pradesh Rajya Police Karmchari Parishad has rallied behind Prashant Chaudhary and Sandeep Kumar Rana.

On Saturday around 2am, the two constables had intercepted Vivek Tiwari in Gomti Nagar Extension and Chaudhary had shot him dead. The shooter had claimed that Tiwari had tried to crush him under the wheels of his car and he opened fire in self-defence.

Senior police officers had initially defended Chaudhary but they backtracked under public pressure, and the two constables were arrested and suspended.

A source in the police department told The Telegraph a special investigation team had concluded that the bullet was fired from a distance of 12 metres. The shooter was allegedly standing on a one-and-a-half-foot-high road divider. The revelations suggest the shooter was standing at a safe distance from the car and brings under strain Chaudhary’s self-defence claim.

However, a large number of constables has activated a social media campaign backing their colleagues.

A member of the association told reporters on condition of anonymity that over 300 constables, mostly those who were recruited between 2014 and 2016, held a closed-door meeting in Allahabad on Thursday morning. All of them were of the view that Chaudhary and Rana were innocent and they should be reinstated and all charges revoked, he said.

“The Adityanath government formed Anti-Romeo Squad and asked us to prevent eve-teasing. Later, the same government branded us as anti-lovers when we were doing our duty night and day. Then he formed encounter squads to eliminate criminals and later branded us as killers. We don’t need such a government,” said a constable who had attended the meeting.

Prashant Chaudhary Agencies

The constable claimed that they were being victimised because they had got jobs when Akhilesh Yadav was chief minister. Over 50,000 constables were appointed between 2014 and 2016 when Akhilesh was in power. Chaudhary and his wife Rakhi Malik had joined the police force in 2015.

“We plan to observe Friday and Saturday as black days by wearing black ribbons on our arms. The next stage of protest will be planned soon,” said the constable who attended Thursday’s meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Avinash Pathak, another constable, told reporters that they had the support of the Rakshak Kalyan Trust, a non-government police welfare organisation linked to the non-gazetted police welfare association of the state.

Himanshu Shukla, a former sub-inspector, wrote on Facebook that entire force should be on mass leave for three days from January 1, 2019. Pathak and many other policemen have shared this on their Facebook pages.

Pathak shares another post in which a little girl is seen standing beside her constable father in uniform with a piece of paper which reads: “Uncle, Papa is on duty. Please don’t mow him down.”

This is apparently a reply to a protest by children in Lucknow on Sunday. They were carrying placards which read in Hindi: “Police uncle, don’t shoot my father. He will stop the car, if you insist.”