Vivek Tiwari was shot at by a cop in Lucknow and died of gunshot injury in a few hours.

Lucknow resident Vivek Tiwari was on his way home when two policemen on patrol duty came on a motorcycle from the front and one of them fired, the woman, who was in the car with Mr Tiwari and now an eyewitness in the case, told reporters.

She said the cops were shouting at them and it made no sense. A few trucks were parked in the area, but nobody came to help, she added.

"Two police personnel -- Prashant Chowdhary and Sandeep Kumar -- came in front of the car and Prashant fired. The bullet was fired from the front," she said.

Both the cops have been arrested and removed from the force.

The 38-year-old Apple executive was killed in the early hours of Saturday by one of the constables who alleged that they approached Mr Tiwari's SUV after they noticed "suspicious activity". They parked their patrol vehicle next to the SUV and asked the passengers to come out, but the driver tried to speed away. The SUV reversed and hit their motorcycle.

He even "tried to run over him", which is when he opened fire in "self-defence", the cop had alleged.

But the constable later said he took out his pistol only to warn Mr Tiwari. Since the pistol was loaded and a shot got fired, he claimed.

The eyewitness has trashed the cop's claim and said the car was "never stationary". "The police had no reason to stop us and shout. It made no sense. They might have misunderstood the presence of a woman in the car. We were reversing the car when it hit their motorcycle. Then the cop fired," the woman said.

Mr Tiwari died of gunshot injury on the left side of his chin, the post-mortem report said.

UP police chief OP Singh accepted that law was violated and Mr Tiwari was murdered by the policeman. Mr Singh expressed grief over the incident and vowed to wean out "rogues in uniform" who bring dishonour to the force.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath met the family and assured them that his government will provide all assistance. He also said "such criminal offences will not be accepted by the government".

The state government has given Rs 40 lakh in compensation to the family.

Mr Tiwari's wife Kalpana has been offered a job at the Lucknow civic body. "He (Yogi Adityanath) heard what I had to say and assured help. I am in no shape to take any strong stand...I had said that I have faith in our state government... today that faith has strengthened," said Kalpana Tiwari.