The Ghaziabad encounter on early Wednesday morning, which prompted a string of violent attacks on the local police, is caught in the middle of several contradictory arguments.

The police have said the dead men — Rahees Qureshi and Feroz Qureshi — were killed in retaliatory fire when a team apprehended them at Indirapuram following a complaint that the men, along with two others, had attacked the driver of a Toyota Qualis the night before and made away with the vehicle. The police have also said nine criminal cases were pending against Rahees, some registered in 2005.

Senior Superintendenf of Police (SSP), Ghaziabad, Akhil Kumar said: “We could not identify the men as they were not locals, nor in the ‘wanted’ list. They had injured the driver of the Qualis, Naushad. We shall take DNA samples and fingerprints from the car to establish the extent of the crime. Rahees is already in the law’s books for nine cases of loot, vehicle theft and robbery.” However, the families have refuted the police version, with Rahees’ father Mohammed Azeez claiming that his son was picked up by the station house officer of Indirapuram Jeetendra Kalra. He said Kalra came to their New Hindon Vihar home around 10 pm on Tuesday night. “When we asked why our boy was being taken to the police station, Kalra said he was needed for questioning and would be let off soon. We heard the next morning that he had been shot,” Azeez said.

Meanwhile, Feroz’s father Mohammed Anees said that his son was called away on Tuesday evening by his friend Salman. “We did not object since Salman is our neighbour, though I reminded Feroz to come home soon,” Feroz’s mother Najma said. Feroz left his Islam Nagar home around 8.30 pm.

When he did not return till late, the family went over to Salman’s home to enquire. They found Salman at home, but he said Feroz had decided later that evening to visit his grandmother in Hapur. The family called Hapur, and found that Feroz had not turned up.

Despite this version, Anees’ FIR — registered on Wednesday morning — says something entirely different. The FIR against six policemen, filed at the Link Road Police Station, states: “One H N Singh and five constables were waiting for us outside Sahibabad’s sabzi mandi. Feroz, Rahees, Farooq, Aeiya, Anees and me were going home after selling vegetables. The police took away Feroz and Rahees for interrogation. We read in the afternoon’s newspaper that they had been shot dead.”

SSP Kumar said: “The family’s allegations are false. The moment we came to know the car had been stolen, we alerted all checkposts in Ghaziabad. The boys must have hidden the car for a few hours. We caught them when they came out.”

Superintendent of Police, Ghaziabad, Anant Dev said: “We have opened the cases against Rahees and are trying to trace the co-accused in these crimes. We will also hunt down the two absconding.” The police have registered three FIRs against the rioters who burnt the New Bus Stand police chowki, a police jeep and also injured officers of the Kavi Nagar, Kotwali and Sihani Gate police stations.