Samajwadi Party leader, son shot dead while out for walk in Uttar Pradesh

A Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and his son were shot dead in broad daylight in western Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday. The killing took place in Sambhal district, which is a little over 200 kilometres from national capital Delhi.

The SP leader Chhote Lal Diwakar and his son were gunned down after a fight broke out over a work being done under MGNREGA scheme of the central government in the area, the police said.

“Some work was being carried out under MGNREGA due to which some dispute happened. Two people have been shot dead,” said Yamuna Prasad, Superintendent of Police, Sambhal.

News agency IANS quoted the family members of the SP leader as saying that Diwakar and his son had gone for a walk in the fields when the assailants came on a motorbike and after a brief altercation, shot them dead. They fled on foot, leaving their motorbike behind.

Samajwadi Party’s district president Firoz Khan said that Diwakar had been the party’s candidate for Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in 2017. He, however, did not fight the polls as the seat went to some other candidate of the SP-Congress coalition. He claimed some local gang leaders killed the SP leader and his son.

“Chhote Lal Diwakar of Sansoi village had some tussle with former pradhan (village head) over MGNREGA work. The father and the son died on the spot in bullet firing. Their bodies have been sent for post-mortem and FIR is being registered. Three teams have been formed, some people have been detained and the probe is on,” said SP Sambhal.

Police said that one of the accused has been identified as Savinder, a local strongman. “We have detained four people who are being interrogated,” said SP Yamuna Prasad.

A large number of SP workers reached the village soon after the news of the double murder spread. Adequate police force has been deployed at the village to ensure that no untoward incident takes place.