Even as the Agra police groped in the dark for the motive behind the sensational murder of Uttar Pradesh Bar Council’s first woman president by another lawyer on the Agra civil court premises on Wednesday, the last rites of Darvesh Singh Yadav were performed in her native Chandpur village in Etah district on Thursday.
The funeral pyre was lit by the slain lawyer’s nephew, Parth Yadav, in the presence of other family members.
UP Law Minister Brijesh Pathak attended the funeral, besides a large number of lawyers and members of the public. He announced that the UP government would provide adequate security to the lawyers on the court premises.
In a statement issued in Lucknow late Wednesday night, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said, “Along with the Bar Council, the Bar Association and the judiciary, the state government is committed to providing adequate security on the premises of the high court and the district courts.” He said clear-cut instructions in this regard had been given to the Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police.
“The government will take effective steps, keeping in mind all the parameters of security,” the Chief Minister said, while expressing grief at the demise of the newly-elected president of UP Bar Council and conveying his condolence to the members of the bereaved family and the legal fraternity.
Sources said that the investigation so far pointed that both Darvesh Yadav and lawyer Manish Sharma who shot her, were having some dispute for a long time and on Wednesday, it was some colleagues of the UP Bar Council president who had called Manish Sharma and asked him to come to the felicitation ceremony and forget all differences.
On their request, Manish Sharma arrived and some witnesses revealed that he loaded the weapon inside the court premises and went to the chamber of Arvind Kumar Mishra where Darvesh Yadav was present. Sources said that besides Darvesh Yadav and Mishra, her maternal nephew Manoj Yadav and niece Kanchan Yadav, a sub-inspector, were also present.
Manish first had some heated arguments with Manoj after which he whipped out his weapon and fired the first shot at him. However, Manoj survived and took shelter under the table. After Manish opened fire on Manoj, Darvesh Yadav abused him and questioned his action. On this, Manish pumped three bullets in her body and later fired at his own temple. However, it is still not clear what differences Manish had with Darvesh Yadav’s family.
Darvesh’s nephew Sunny Yadav has lodged a report with the police in which besides Manish he has also named Manish’s wife Vandana Sharma.
Darvesh’s colleagues told police that Manish was friendly with her since she started practice in 2004 and he always campaigned for her whenever she fought elections. In the election for UP Bar Council chairperson’s post, Manish had worked very hard to ensure her victory. They said it was difficult to fathom what went wrong, between the two to the extent that Manish shot Darvesh Yadav.
It may be mentioned here that Darvesh Yadav was a spinster and was looking after the family members and bearing the expenses of the children of her brother and sisters.
Meanwhile, work in the courts across western UP came to a standstill on Thursday as lawyers protested against Darvesh Yadav’s killing.
Muzaffarnagar District Bar Association president Syed Naseer Haider said the incident was condemned by lawyers during a condolence meeting.
The call for the boycott of work was given by the state bar council. Judicial work was affected in Baghpat, Bijnor, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Saharanpur and Shamli districts.
