In a sensational incident in Basti, the son of Bajrang Dal’s former convenor Ramesh Pratap Singh, who was accused in the Ayodhya demolition case, was kidnapped and then murdered.

On the complaint of victim Shakti Singh’s brother Vikram Pratap Singh, the Kotwali police station has registered a case of kidnapping and murder against five people, including Rana Nagesh Pratap Singh, son of former MLA Rana Kinkar Singh.

Ramesh Singh, who was a leader of Bajrang Dal, was accused along with former deputy prime minister Lal Krishna Advani, Uma Bharti, Ashok Singhal in the Ayodhya demolition case. He was one of the leading Hindu leaders not only in the district but also in the state.

Bharatiya Janata Patyu leader Rana Nagesh Pratap Singh is said to be involved in the murder of his son.

On the complaint of the deceased’s brother, five people, including Rana Nagesh, Ravi Singh resident Beladi Nagar, Shailesh Singh, and Manoj Shukla have been named in the FIR.

According to information, there was an old rivalry between Rana Krishna Kinkar Singh (a former MLA) and Ramesh Pratap Singh. Rana Kinkar was accused in the murder of Ramesh Pratap Singh’s father Pahalwan Singh. Both the families were always at loggerheads over this rivalry. It is also said that later there was a reconciliation between the two. At present, both Ramesh Singh and Kinkar Singh are no more in this world, but a bloody conflict has started once again between their sons.

Regarding the incident, Circle Officer Kalwari Pradeep Tripathi said that police teams were raiding the possible hideouts of the accused to arrest them in connection with the kidnapping and murder.

According to the complaint of the deceased’s brother Vikram, his elder brother Shakti Singh had gone to Moodghat for the funeral of a person from the village. From there, his brother was kidnapped by Rana Nagesh along with his associates and murdered. After that, the body of Shakti Singh was cut into two pieces and stuffed in a sack and thrown on the embankment of the Saryu river in Dubaulia police station area.

 The police recovered the body and sent it for post-mortem.

When Shakti’s brother came to know about this, he reached the mortuary and identified his brother’s body.

Superintendent of Police in Basti, Gopal Krishna Chaudhary, said a case had been registered against the named accused and they were being searched.

The police are also busy looking for the motive for the murder.