M A I N   N E W S

No breakthrough in BJP MLA murder case

Lucknow, December 4
Even six days after the murder of Uttar Pradesh BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai, along with his seven supporters in Ghazipur, the state police was yet to get a major breakthrough in the case.

The special task force (STF) of the UP Police has interrogated over 100 persons, including some notorious criminals of Ghazipur, to track the culprits behind Tuesday’s attack.

Eight teams have been dispatched to several places, including Bihar, to trace the assailants including Munna Bajrangi and Firdaus, touted to have executed the crime.

A senior police official said the STF was expecting a breakthrough in the case soon.

STF SSP Akhil Kumar, who is also holding the charge of the SP Ghazipur, said the probe was inching towards success.

Without divulging on the probe, he maintained, “The time is not ripe to disclose anything.”

Meanwhile, controversial Independent MLA Mukhtar Ansari, who is lodged in the Ghazipur district jail, was shifted this evening so that he could attend the Assembly session tomorrow.

Ansari, along with his MP brother and some relatives, was among the 10 named accused in the BJP MLA’s murder.

Till date, only one accused, Ejaz, a close relative of Mukhtar, had surrendered in the court, while the rest, including elder brother of Mukhtar, Afzal Ansari, a Samajwadi Party MP from Ghazipur, are still at large.

Yesterday, the STF had taken in custody another close relative of Mukhtar from his in-laws place, while another criminal of Ghazipur was interrogated briefly by the police.

Last night, a raid was conducted at a school in the Puredayal village in Ghazipur in search of Prem Prakash, alias Munna Bajrangi, a native of the district, who entered the world of crime in 1982.

The STF had already announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh each for any information about Munna Bajrangi or Firdaus. The sketches and photographs of the duo had been released. — UNI