Two leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party were sprayed with bullets in Saharanpur and Basti respectively while a Congress leader was killed in Kanpur.
The agitated mobs in all the three places staged protests. In protests against the murders of BJP leaders, agitated mobs torched the local police outposts, several vehicles and other establishments.
In Saharanpur, senior farmers’ leader of BJP, Yashpal Singh, was sprayed with bullets in broad daylight on Wednesday.
Singh was going to attend a marriage ceremony at Miragpur hamlet on a motorcycle when unknown miscreants intercepted him and opened indiscriminate fire, killing him on the spot. Singh’s brother was local pradhan and he lodged a report, in which he suspected that an old property dispute had led to the murder.
Local BJP leaders staged a protest and also damaged several vehicles to register their ire. SSP Dinesh Kumar P, who rushed to the spot, said a case had been registered and all efforts were being made to arrest the assailants.
According to reports from Basti, a BJP student leader was shot dead at Ranjeet crossing on Malviya Road.
Kabir Tiwari (26), a former students’ union president of APN College, was shot at around 10 am on Wednesday by an unknown person. He seriously injured Tiwari was rushed to the district hospital from where he was referred to KGMU Trauma Centre in Lucknow but he died on the way.
Police have detained one person and are probing the case.
Supporters of the BJP leader placed the dead body at the gate of the city police station, demanding immediate arrest of the assailant. They later torched several vehicles along with the office of the local police outpost.
In another sensational killing in Kanpur, Youth Congress leader Sohaib Khan, a resident of Greater Kailash locality under Chakeri police station, was reportedly sprayed with bullets on Wednesday afternoon.
His supporters and family members staged a protest. They suspected the hand of one Ravi Yadav behind the killing.
A case was registered in this regard.
Meanwhile in Aligarh, a 52-year-old man and his son were shot dead by some people over a property dispute, police said on Wednesday. Chandraveer and his son Bhura (32) were working in the fields when they were killed in Mai village under Iglas police station on Tuesday, Superintendent of Police (Rural) Manilal Patidar said.
The father-son duo died on the spot, the SP said, adding that apparently a property dispute was behind the murder.
He said the family of the victims alleged that one Pali, a member of a land mafia, had been threatening them to vacate their plot of land.
In the FIR lodged with the police, Chandraveer’s other son Rinku alleged that four people led by Pali were behind the killing, the SP said.
After the incident some villagers rushed to the spot and prevented police from removing the bodies for several hours, he said.
The irate villagers alleged that the crime would not have taken place had police acted against the land maifa members earlier.
Senior police officials pacified the villagers on the assurance that the guilty would not be spared, the SP said.
An investigation is underway but no arrests have been made so far
