New Delhi: Gangster Sanjeev Jeeva was shot dead by unknown assailants outside a Lucknow court Wednesday in what became the second murder of a criminal in the custody of the Uttar Pradesh police in less than two months.
According to the police, the assailant entered the court dressed as a lawyer. Jeeva, a close aide of jailed gangster Mukhtar Ansari, was accused in the murder of BJP leader Brahm Dutt Dwivedi and was brought to court for a hearing.
He collapsed on the spot after being shot, while a police man was also injured in the firing.
On 15 April, gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf were shot dead by three people posing as journalists in Prayagraj. The duo were being taken by police to a medical college amid heavy security.
The five-time MLA and one-term MP was talking to reporters when he was fired at point-blank by Lovelesh Tiwari, Sunny Singh and Arun Maurya. The three men immediately surrendered. Ahmed’s teenage son was shot dead by police days earlier.
Ahmed faced over a hundred cases — including kidnapping, murder and extortion — in a career spanning nearly 50 years. A local court had sentenced him and two others to life in jail in March for the 2006 kidnapping of murder witness Umesh Pal.
After Jeeva’s murder, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister K.P. Maurya said the police would not spare the culprit.
Attacking the ruling BJP government in the state, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav said Uttar Pradesh was the most unsafe place, more so for women and girls. He said there were 88 cases of rape reported in Noida alone in the last five months.
Also read: Jailed gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari guilty in 1991 murder of Congressman Awadhesh Rai