Unidentified motorcycle-borne assailants sprayed a 32-year-old woman lawyer with bullets.
The sensational killing took place in broad daylight in Meerut’s New Mewla Colony on Wednesday morning when the victim was returning home after buying milk.
According to the local police, Anjali Garg, the lawyer, was involved in a property dispute with her ex-husband Nitin Garg’s family after their divorce.
“We are waiting for a complaint for further investigation,” said a police officer, who did not want to be named.
Police said that Garg’s ex-father-in-law had been taken into custody for questioning.
Meerut Bar Association president KP Sharma said that Garg was a registered lawyer with the Bar.
“Lawyers will abstain from work today (Wednesday) after a condolence meeting,” Sharma said.
He said that lawyers would meet Senior Superintendent of Police Rohit Kumar Sajwan over the murder in broad daylight and demand immediate arrest of the accused.
Police said that Garg continued to stay in the house of her former in-laws after the divorce and that they were pressuring her to vacate it.
Before her murder, she had posted two videos on social media purportedly showing her father-in-law chasing and abusing her.
Garg had reportedly visited the office of the IG (Meerut range) on May 18 over danger to her life but the top police officer of the region was not there.
Meanwhile in Agra, a retired army personnel shot dead his wife and later threatened the neighbours with dire consequences after they came to rescue her.
Reports said that the neighbours of one Mahendra Singh rushed to his house after they heard gunshots. As they were trying to open the gate, Mahendra came out and, waving a pistol in his hand, claimed to have killed his wife Neeta and threatened to shoot others if they did not leave his house immediately.
As the residents left to save their lives, they saw Mahendra coming out after a few minutes and leaving home on a motorcycle.
The local residents then went to the house and found Mahendra’s daughter-in-law Pooja locked inside. They took her out after which they learnt that the body of Neeta was lying in a pool of blood.
Pooja later revealed that after taking voluntary retirement from the Army, Mahendra returned home a few months back and since then, he and his wife had regular fights over one or the other issue.
Mahendra claimed that he was not getting respect from the family and had threatened to kill his wife. Pooja said that on Tuesday afternoon also, the two had a heated exchange of words after which Mahendra shot Neeta dead.
The local police reached the spot and sent the body for autopsy. The police also arrested Mahendra and sent him to jail on Wednesday afternoon.