Despite the lockdown to prevent spread of coronavirus, a local leader of Bharatiya Janata Party and his aides opened indiscriminate fire on Samajwadi Party leaders, killing two and injuring four others in Gonda in broad daylight on Friday.
The assailants were alleged to be local zila panchayat member Atul Singh Paras, his brother and half-a-dozen cronies.
Senior officers rushed to the spot and initiated a probe into the killing after registering a case. The injured were shifted to the district hospital.
Reports said that officials of MGNREGA scheme and APO, Tarabganj, called job card holders to record their statement at Sangampurwa primary school in Tarabganj Paraspatti Majhdhar area of Gonda on Friday afternoon. They were busy recording statements about alleged irregularities in MGNREGA payments made by Atul Singh’s mother and sitting pradhan of Paraspatti when Atul Singh, his brother and his cronies reached there on two vehicles and opened indiscriminate fire on former pradhan Devendra Pratap aka Lathi Singh and his group.
The incident sent shock waves and people started running in all directions to save their lives.
An eyewitness, who was playing volleyball there, said that soon after the firing stopped, the injured were shifted to district hospital where two of them were pronounced dead upon arrival. The deceased were identified as Devendra Pratap aka Lathi Singh and Kanhaiya Pathak.
A Samajwadi Party leader, Lathi Singh was earlier the pradhan of Paraspatti and was a political rival of BJP leader Atul Singh Paras.
Lathi’s brother, Vijay Singh ‘Tintu’ is a student leader in Lucknow University. He was critically injured in the firing.
Further investigations are on.
Expressing concern at the daring shooting during lockdown in Gonda, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath asked the district magistrate and district police chief to arrest the assailants as soon as possible and invoke NSA against them.
He also expressed condolences to the families of the deceased.
Meanwhile in Maharajganj, a doctor died while returning from duty on Friday morning.
Dr Nikhil, posted at community health centre in Basantpur, Bansi, was returning home after night duty when he suddenly lost control over his four-wheeler and it plunged into a pond at Koiladad hamlet on Gorakhpur-Siddharthnagar on Friday morning.
The locals somehow extricated him from the vehicle but he died on way to hospital.