The Special Task Force (STF) on Thursday arrested three hardcore criminals while they were planning to eliminate a gram pradhan at the behest of a west UP ganglord, from Durgapuri area of Cantonment police station area on Thursday evening. Huge quantity of ammunition, a stolen bike and a cellphone was recovered from them.
The arrested were identified as Raj Singh of Sultanpur (presently staying at Indira Nagar), Suraj Singh of Kalyanpur (Gudamba) and Vijay Yadav of Mohanlalganj.
The STF source said that the three are sharp shooters and used to work for Udham Singh Karanwal, a west UP ganglord presently doing time at lucknow jail. Karanwal used to get heinous crimes executed through these hitmen despite being within the confines of the jail.
While being detained in Meerut jail, Karanwal gave contract to eliminate Deputy General Manager of Kinauni sugar mill, Siddharth Upadhaya, got ` gram pradhan` Saheb Singh bumped off in 2008 and Pramod Bhadaura at Meerut in 2011. Karanwal was transferred to lucknow jail for his notorious activities.
Source said that Karanwal had given a contract of Rs 5 lakhs to Vijay Yadav to eliminate a Gram Pradhan at Khajauli village of Mohanlalganj. Yadav hired Suraj and Raj to execute the plan. Both have been involved in several crimes registered at Mahanagar and Ghazipur police stations.
On Thursday evening as the STF team closed in on them at a burial ground at Durgapuri, the trio started firing at the cops. In reply, the STF personnel too fired and after abrief chase they were nabbed.
Three country-made pistols, a dozen live cartridges and four used ones, a stolen motor-cycle and a mobile phone set were recovered from their possession. The team was led by SP Amit Pathak and accompanied by additional SP Alok Singh beside others.