Six days after two minors were murdered at laksar on Khanpur Road in Haridwar district, the district police arrested six persons on Tuesday. Family member of one of the deceased, Satyapal had registered a complaint on April 21 a day after the murders were committed at laksar police station following which a case under sections 147/148/149/302/34/120b of IPC was registered against unidentified persons.
Murders of two miners on April 20 evening had triggered panic among the residents. They came close on the heels of the murder of a local BJP leader Raj Singh (35) who was murdered on April 19. Murders in two consecutive days in Haridwar made the people question the efficacy of the law-enforcing machinery in the crime-prone district. Facing flak, police swung into action and succeeded to crack the case in a week.
However, police are still clueless about the identity of the criminals who had murdered local BJP leader and president of the party-affiliated Anusuchit Jati Morcha.
Haridwar SP Rural Premendra Dobhal said that following the direction of SSP Senthil Akdai Krishna Raj S, several teams comprising inspector Jaidev Arya, senior sub-inspector RK Juyal, sub-inspectors-Sumpurnanand Gairola, Devendra Singh Rawat, and Naresh Kumar and constables- Ravi, Satish, Varun and Arvind-were formed to crack the case at the earliest.
Acting on tip- offs, the team members conducted raids in Delhi, Meerat, Muzafarnagar, Saharanpur, Patiyala and some other places. Finally, the accused were arrested from Bhurni Road at laksar in Haridwar. The accused have been identified as Sandeep alias Cheeku, resident of laksar, Raja alias Ranjeet, resident of Pathari, Tejendra Gill, Raj Kiran and Anil Mittal and Sanjeev Rana, all from laksar.
Police had recovered pistols and cartridges used for murdering the miners from the possession of Cheeku and Raja. Using the pistol, Cheeku and Raja had fired on Anil and Karunesh and both died in the hospital, police said, adding that the other accused had conspired to bump the miners off along with the duo who fired.
In course of interrogation, the accused are learnt to have revealed that deceased Karunesh had refused to pay back Rs 1.65 lakh lent to him by Cheeku in the past. Anil had been murdered because he had supported Karunesh in the non-payment of the loan. Police had recovered a country- made pistol .32 each from Cheeku and Raja. Haridwar SSP announced reward of Rs 2,500 for the team for cracking the case.