Cops suspect jailed Azamgarh gangster was involved
LUCKNOW: Involvement of jailed Azamgarh gangster Dhruv Kumar Singh alias Kuntu Singh’s shooters is suspected in the Gomti Nagar shootout in which Varanasi contractor and jailed mafioso Munna Bajrangi’s aide, Mohd Tariq, 40, was killed on December 1.
A source in police department said the involvement of Kuntu’s shooters also suggest that Tariq’s murder was the fallout of resumption of over three-decadeold rivalry between the groups of two jailed mafioso turned politicians Brijesh Singh and Mukhtar Ansari.
He said Kuntu Singh has been long time associate of Brijesh Singh while Munna Bajrangi has remained associated with Mukhtar Ansari’s group. He said Kuntu had executed several critical plans on Brijesh Singh’s behest. He said Kuntu’s involvement is again surfacing up in executing Tariq’s killing on behest of Singh.
He said Tariq was targeted as he had remained associated with Munna Bajrangi and Mukhtar Ansari groups for a long time and started managing financial resources of Munna Bajrangi for past 18 months. After Tariq’s elimination, Bajrnagi’s group has gone on back foot and faced major damage to its financial resources, he said.
He said Brijesh Singh’s group was on back foot after two attacks on his close associates in 2013 and his group members gradually went underground. He said Singh’s close associate Ajai Singh alias Khalnayak and his wife Meera Singh were attacked in Varanasi on May 5, 2013. He said Singh’s cousin Satish Singh was murdered at his native village Dhaurahera in Varanasi on July 3, 2013.
The source said Brijesh Singh’s group resumed power after he had won council elections (local bodies constituencies) from Varanasi-Chandauli seat as an independent candidate in February, 2016.
Incidentally, Singh’s arch-rival Munna Bajrangi’s brother-inlaw, Pushpjeet Singh, was shot dead by two motorcycle-borne shooters in Vikas Nagar in Lucknow on May 3, 2016 soon after his group resumed power. And on the same pattern, Tariq, who replaced Pusphjeet and started managing financial resources of Bajrangi’s group, was shot dead in his moving SUV over Gomti Nagar extension bridge on Friday evening.
SUSPECT’S BACKGROUND
Dhruv Kumar Singh alias Kuntu Singh, a notorious criminal of eastern Uttar Pradesh, is in Bareilly jail at present.
The police had arrested him on March 29, 2013 on the charge of kidnapping.
There are at least 20 cases of murder apart from loot and extortion against him in Azamgarh, Mau and Jaunpur. Dhruv Singh took control of his elder brother Pappu Singh’s gang after the latter was killed in a police encounter a few years ago. The gang is involved in sand mining and liquor contracts now.