Four days after a Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vijay Pandit was gunned down in Dadri in Uttar Pradesh’s Gautam Buddha Nagar district, the police on Wednesday arrested four persons. Among those arrested is a sharpshooter belonging to Bulandshahr and two history-sheeters of Bulandshahr and Hapur districts. The fourth person allegedly revealed Pandit’s location to the assailants.
Meanwhile, Monu from Morna was taken into custody on Wednesday in connection with the killing of another BJP leader, Omvir Singh, who was shot dead in Meerpur area of Muzaffarnagar district on Tuesday. He is being interrogated, State IG (Law and Order) Amrendra Kumar Sengar said.
Police believe the cause of Pandit’s murder to be personal enmity that dates back to 2012, when one Ravindra Sharma was killed in Dadri. The IG (Law and Order) denied that either Samajwadi Party leader Narendra Bhati or jailed history-sheeter Anil Dujana had any role in Pandit’s murder. Dujana, previously incarcerated in the Muzaffarnagar jail, has been shifted to Banda prison.
Giving details of the case, Mr. Sengar told reporters that Avnish alias Anni, Deepak, Kallan and Narendra were arrested by a joint team of Gautam Buddha Nagar police and Special Task Force personnel from near Jalalpur Phatak in Noida on Wednesday. Two other accused, Arun and Nitin, are absconding.
The IG said Pandit was shot by Avnish and Arun who, along with the other four assailants, rode two Pulsar motorcycles. While Kallan and Narendra supplied weapons to the accused, Deepak and Nitin tipped the conspirators off about Pandit’s location, Mr. Sengar said. The motorbikes were abandoned at the scene of crime. The IG said the address and the name of the owner of the Pulsar motorbike with the Delhi registration number were found to be false.
Detailing the enmity between Pandit and Avnish, the IG said five persons, including Arun, were arrested for the killing of Ravindra Sharma in 2012. Avnish’s house was torched by Pandit and his supporters in retaliation to the murder and since then Avnish had vowed revenge, Mr. Sengar said. Arun wanted an out-of-court settlement to the dispute which was rejected by Pandit, he added.
In the Omvir Singh case, police detained Monu in Muzaffarnagar, a day after the BJP functionary was killed in Meerpur. Mr. Sengar said the youth claimed that Omvir Singh’s killing was a case of mistaken identity. The youth claimed he was first hit by a bullet from Singh’s pistol.
