Lucknow: A close aide of jailed gangster-politician and former MP Dhananjay Singh was shot dead by three assailants in Uttar Pradesh’s Jaunpur district Tuesday evening. This came on the day after his wife Shrikala was declared the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate for Jaunpur in the Lok Sabha elections.
According to the police, the assailants shot Mohammed Anees Khan (38) and repeatedly stabbed him with knives at 7:15 pm in Jaunpur’s Reethi Bazar, some 2 km from the couple’s home in Bansafa. Khan, who was reportedly Dhananjay Singh’s former gunner, was rushed to the hospital but succumbed to his injuries.
Police identified the three assailants as Aniket, Prince, and Pandu and put down the killing to personal rivalry and a “battle for supremacy”.
“It prima facie appears that Khan and Pandu’s father Mustkim used to work together, but fell out over something. They were also engaged in a battle for (gang) supremacy in the neighbourhood,” Jaunpur SP (rural) Shailendra Singh told ThePrint, adding that “all angles are being probed”.
All four, including Mustkim, were booked under Sections 302 (murder) and 34 (common intent) of IPC, police said, adding that security had been increased near Reethi Bazar.
Shrikala, a former BJP leader, posted a condolence message on X.
अफ़सोस! एक मजबूत साथी को आज हमने खो दिया, अनीस आप हम सबकी यादों में हमेशा जिंदा रहेंगे। घटना को अंजाम देने वालों पर प्रशासन के द्वारा कड़ी से कड़ी कार्रवाई सुनिश्चित करवाऊंगी। इस दुःख की घड़ी में मेरी सांत्वना परिवार के साथ है।
खिराज ए अख़िदत pic.twitter.com/AhwNcGCAR1
— Shrikala Dhananjay Singh (@ShrikalaSingh) April 16, 2024
Ashok Singh, who identified himself as a “representative” of Dhananjay Singh, told the media that Khan was a “strong supporter” of the former BSP MP and two-time MLA. “He had been doing good work at the booth level (for Singh). The allegations of rivalry are a subject of investigation,” Singh said.
Meanwhile, Khan’s wife Reshma Bano said that her husband had stopped working for the former BSP leader a while ago and did odd jobs for a living. “We don’t know the reason (for the killing). They would know about this animosity,” she told the media.
In March, a Jaunpur court sentenced Dhananjay Singh to seven years in jail for the abduction and extortion of a Namami Gange project manager.
The BSP has now fielded Jaunpur’s nagar panchayat chairman Shrikala from Jaunpur against BJP’s Kripashankar Singh, a Rajput leader and former Congress minister from Maharashtra who joined the party in July 2021.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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