Prayagraj (UP), Apr 18: A crude bomb was hurled in a bylane near the residence of one of the lawyers of slain gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed on Tuesday, police said.
There was no immediate report of any casualty in the explosion that occurred at around 2.30 pm in Katra locality here, they said.
SHO of Kernalganj police station Ram Mohan Rai claimed Atiq's lawyer Dayashankar Mishra was not the target and the incident was a fallout of personal enmity between two youths. However, the lawyer claimed that it was an attempt "to create fear and terror".
"I was in the court when my son informed me that bombs have been hurled. I rushed home. ...I think this has been done to frighten me, to create terror. It is a big conspiracy... It is for the police to find out who is behind this," Mishra told reporters.
"My daughter and the locals saw that there was one person involved and three bombs were hurled," he claimed.
Forensic experts had gathered evidence from the spot, the police said, adding further action was being taken.
"The crude bomb was hurled due to personal enmity of two youths in Katra locality. It is a coincidence that the incident occurred near the house of one of the advocates of Atiq Ahmad, who resides in the locality," the SHO claimed.
Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf were shot dead on Saturday night in dramatic circumstances during a media scrum while being escorted by police in Prayagraj.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Lucknow/Pratapgarh (UP) (PTI): Police have apprehended a 16-year-old boy for his alleged involvement in the rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman whose body was found hanging from a tree in a village here, officials said on Monday.
Additional Superintendent of Police (West), Brijnandan Rai, said that the body of a 19-year-old woman was found hanging from a tree in an orchard in the Manikpur police station area on Sunday morning. A post-mortem examination subsequently confirmed that she had been raped.
Police registered a case against unidentified persons under sections 103(1) (punishment for murder) and 70(1) (gangrape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, and initiated an investigation.
During the course of the investigation, the police found that the deceased was in contact with a juvenile who was also her relative.
Acting on this information, during a joint checking operation, sub-inspector Amit Kumar Singh of Manikpur police station and SOG In-charge Amit Kumar Chaurasia, along with their team, apprehended the 16-year-old near the Lehdari Ganga River bridge.
The search for other accused persons is ongoing, police said.
According to the police, the woman had gone to sleep after dinner on Saturday night but was found hanging in an orchard nearly 400 metres away from her home the following morning.
Additional Superintendent of Police (West), Brijnandan Rai, had earlier said that the circumstances suggest foul play.
"The victim's slippers and undergarments were recovered 50 metres away from the spot where the body was found. There are visible injury marks on her body," Rai said.
While locals have alleged that the woman was murdered after being raped, the ASP said that it is "prima facie a case of murder."
"Based on the complaint filed by the victim's brother, a case of murder has been registered against unidentified persons," the officer added.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, in a post on X in Hindi on Monday, said, "The news of the heinous murder of a Dalit daughter in Pratapgarh is deeply tragic and condemnable."
"The question remains: why does the spate of murders of 'PDA daughters' continue unabated in Uttar Pradesh? Are the BJP government's claims regarding women's safety merely hollow rhetoric, or is there, in fact, discrimination even in the provision of security for women?" he said.
"Whenever the 'wandering Honourable (ghumantu maananiye)' finds a moment of respite from election campaigning, he should cast a glance at the plight of the daughters of his own Uttar Pradesh. In any case, apart from injustice and oppression, no sister, daughter, or mother of this state holds any hope from you," Yadav added.
