Mahoba:
Mahoba-based stone trader Indrakant Tripathi, who was shot dead in mysterious circumstances days after accusing the district’s former SP of demanding bribe to allow the transportation of ballast, was cremated on Monday amid heavy police presence.
Tripathi, had been shot at and injured critically by unidentified assailants last Tuesday, days after he had levelled allegations of corruption against the then Mahoba’s Police Superintendent Manilal Patidar.
The 44-year-old stone trader succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in Uttar Pradesh‘s Kanpur on Sunday.
Reacting to the allegation against corruption, the Uttar Pradesh government had suspended the SP and an SHO a day after the trader was shot at mysteriously on September 8.
Deceased Indrakant Tripathi’s brother Ravikant Tripathi, meanwhile, accused the local police of harassing the family members and friends of the slain trader and dilly-dallying in the invoking murder charges in the FIR lodged against the SP, the SHO and two others after his brother was shot at.
“As we were returning from the cremation ground, my brother’s business partner Purshottam Soni was picked up by the police. He was taken in a police vehicle to Kabrai police station. This angered people, who held a demonstration at the police station, said Ravikant.
“Additional SP had picked up Purshottam Soni. Mahoba District Magistrate Avadhesh Kumar Tiwari, however, reached the police reached and pacified people, after which the gherao of the police station was called off. Talks are still on to release Soni from the police station with villagers still present in the vicinity of the police station, he said.
On the alleged dilly-dallying by police in the investigation, Ravikant said, “The SHO got the postmortem report of my brother from the Kanpur hospital, but till now, section 302 of IPC for murder has not been added to the case,” he said.
Earlier on Saturday, Circle Officer Rajkumar Pandey had said that stone trader was shot at under mysterious circumstances and was found injured in his car.
On a complaint by trader’s brother Ravikant, a case was registered against suspended SP Mani Lal Patidar, former SHO of Kabrai Police Station Devendra Shukla and two others — Suresh Soni and Brahmadutt — under various sections of the IPC, including the attempt to murder (307) and the Prevention of Corruption Act, he had added.
The FIR was registered on Friday, Pandey had said.
According to Ravikant, his brother was found injured in his car with a gunshot wound on the Banda-Kabrai road around 2.30 pm on Tuesday.
He had also alleged that the suspended SP had demanded a bribe of Rs 6 lakh from his brother and threatened to kill him or send him to jail in case of non-payment.
“My brother uploaded a video on social media on September 7 and 8… after a few hours on Tuesday (September 8), he was found in his car with a bullet injury,” he said.
On September 9, Patidar, the then Mahoba SP, was suspended with immediate effect by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on corruption charges.
The chief minister had also ordered a vigilance probe into the properties of Patidar.
Ballast transporters had accused the SP of demanding money from them for allowing the transportation of material.
