New Delhi: Days after a Sambhal court ordered that a case be lodged vis-a-vis allegations that policemen shot a young man during the November 2024 violence in the town, the police have said they will not register an FIR and that they intend to challenge the order.Chief judicial magistrate Vibhanshu Sudhir heard an application by one Yameen who alleged that local police officers – including then-circle officer Anuj Chaudhary, station house officer Anuj Kumar Tomar and 15-20 unidentified others – shot his son Alam twice in the back and once in the hand during the violence. Alam had gone out to set up his food stall at the time, his father said.While judge Sudhir on January 9 said that the circumstances of the case prima facie disclosed a cognisable offence and ordered that a case be lodged, the Sambhal police on Tuesday wrote on X that it would file an appeal against his order.Sambhal’s police superintendent Krishan Kumar also told the Times of India that judge Sudhir’s order was “illegal” and the police will not file an FIR. “A judicial inquiry into the violence has already concluded that police action was correct. We will file an appeal at the appropriate forum,” he was quoted as saying.Protests against a survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid in the town – following claims by some Hindu activists that the mosque was built on top of a Hindu temple – on November 24, 2024 escalated into violent clashes with police in which at least four Muslim men were killed. A previous survey round had taken place a few days prior within hours of a local court’s directions.Allegations that officers had opened fire at the protesters were levelled then but the police denied them.Uttar Pradesh’s government constituted a three-member judicial commission to probe the circumstances surrounding the violence, which submitted its report in August. No details of the report’s contents were officially made public then.As The Wire Hindi has reported, Yameen in his application alleged that when he tried to get Alam treated by doctors and hospitals in Sambhal, he was refused treatment. He then kept Alam at home for three days out of fear of the police, Yameen said.Yameen said Alam was refused treatment by hospitals in Moradabad and in Aligarh too, where he alleged they were told the police had instructed medical personnel not to take in people injured in the Sambhal violence. Yameen finally got Alam admitted into a Meerut hospital after hiding his address, he submitted.During the hearing, judge Sudhir reviewed police reports, medical records and forensic reports. The police informed his court that the bullet recovered from Alam’s body was a .32 caliber bullet, which is not used in police weapons.However, judge Sudhir noted that the medical records described Alam’s injury as a “gunshot wound” “related to police firing during a riot”, making the case “suspicious”.Speaking to The Wire Hindi, Alam’s brother-in-law Shahnawaz said that the police named Alam as an accused in the clashes only after Yameen filed his petition in February last year.One of the police officers whom the petition accuses of shooting at protesters is then-circle officer Anuj Chaudhary, who had notably said last year that Muslims ought to stay indoors if they cannot accept the application of colours on them during Holi.