An employee of tech giant Apple was allegedly shot dead in the wee hours of Saturday by a Uttar Pradesh policeman on patrol duty, after the victim tried to flee from the police during checking.

The alleged shooting took place at around 1:30 am in Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar area.

According to news agency ANI, the policeman shot at a car on noticing suspicious activity, injuring the driver of the vehicle.

The man identified as Vivek Tiwari, assistant sales manager for Apple India succumbed to his injuries at a hospital after he rammed his SUV against a wall while trying to escape from the police.

The incident happened when Tiwari was heading home after the launch of iPhone X plus along with Sana Khan, his colleague.

Police constable Prashant Kumar who shot Tiwari said he opened fire in self-defence.

“We saw a suspicious car. The lights were off. When we reached the car, whoever was inside it started the car immediately. We parked our bike in front of the car. He hit our bike. I waved at him to stop but he reversed the car and hit us again. We asked him to come out. But he reversed for the third time and hit our bike with full force. I fell and then got up. I drew my pistol to scare him. When he tried to run over me, I had to shoot in self defence,” Kumar was quoted as saying by NDTV.

However, Tiwari’s colleague Sana said the police waylaid them and tried to stop them forcefully.

“The police just waylaid us and tried to stop us forcefully. Sir (Vivek Tiwari) didn’t stop the car. We didn’t realise who they were. There was no accident. We were trying to leave from the side. We hit the bike but they had already gotten off the bike. One of them had a lathi. The man in the front just threw a revolver and fired,” NDTV quoted Sana as saying.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Lucknow Kalanidhi Naithani said constable Prashant Chowdhary has been booked for murder after Khan filed an FIR.

A post-mortem is being conducted to know whether Tiwari died of bullet injury or injuries sustained after his vehicle hit the pillar, a police official said.

Tiwari’s wife Kalpana has accused the police of being “trigger-happy”. She told reporters that she along with her two daughters Shibi and Sonu were informed of “an accident” and that her husband had been taken to the Lohia hospital.

“When we reached there we were told Vivek had died due to excessive bleeding,” she told the media, adding the bullet angle was not even revealed to the family.

(With agency inputs)