A 52-year-old local Bharatiya Janata Party leader, who was a contestant in the panchayat elections in Narayanpur area of Gorakhpur, was sprayed with bullets while he was returning home after attending a public meeting, police said on Saturday.
Three people were detained following the killing of Brijesh Singh on Friday night in the Moglaha area. The fourth accused is at large, police said.
Singh was shot at around 11 pm and was rushed to the BRD Medical College hospital where the doctors pronounced him dead.
Based on a complaint from Singh's family members, a case was registered at the Gulriha police station and Sunil Srivastava, Vinay Srivastava and Ramsamujh were detained on Saturday, police said, adding that teams had been formed to nab Pawan Srivastava.
Panchayat elections will be held across Uttar Pradesh in four phases on April 15, April 19, April 26 and April 29. Counting of votes will be taken up on May 2.
On the probe into the case, Gorakhpur's Senior Superintendent of Police Dinesh Kumar P on Saturday said, "It is very early to say anything, but police have started investigating the matter and are collecting clues and very soon the case will be solved."
The SSP also said that there were no previous instances of Singh filing a complaint against those detained.
Singh had suffered bullet injuries in his head and chest, police said.
Singh was the sector in-charge of the BJP and also a former village head of Narayanpur. He was contesting the elections for the post of village head as the seat was declared unreserved this year.
Following the killing, the BJP leader's family members and relatives staged a protest, demanding immediate arrest of the assailants.
Meanwhile, a dispute during a cricket match resulted in a 16-year-old boy's murder in Unnao, police said on Saturday.
According to reports, some children were playing cricket at Salehanagar within the limits of Safipur police station on Thursday evening. The umpire, during the match, gave a batsman out leg before wicket (LBW) and the decision was contested by the batsman. The 16-year-old player, who was standing near the umpire, said the batsman was clearly out. The batsman, however, refused to leave the pitch, sparking a heated altercation with the 16-year-old player.
As the verbal duel escalated, the 16-year-old player slapped the batsman. Following this, the batsman, in a fit of rage, assaulted the 16-year-old boy with the cricket bat, leading to serious injuries that resulted in his death.
"The duo entered into a verbal spat and the victim slapped the accused. The batsman got annoyed and hit the 16-year-old with the bat on his neck and fled," the local police claimed.
A police officer said the injured boy was rushed to a hospital where doctors pronounced him dead.
Investigation into the case is under, the officer added.