Rift between common friends led to sensational killing
LUCKNOW: A rift between common friends after a dispute over petty issues led to the sensational murder of engineering dropout Prashant Singh, 25, on Thursday afternoon, said police.
He was stabbed to death by assailants in broad daylight at the entrance of a guarded group housing society Alakhnanda Apartments in posh Gomti Nagar extension.
A senior police official said one group of common friends was led by Prashant Singh while other one was led by former BSP MLA Shamsher Bahadur Singh’s son Aman Bahadur Singh.
Rivalry between the two groups grew after a brawl between Prashant Singh and Arpan Shukla, a law student of the private university where the former had pursued his engineering for three years before dropping out last year. The clash took place at a birthday party of their common friend at an eatery in Safedabad on Lucknow-Barabanki border two days before the incident.
“Arpan Shukla had even called up Sabhay Yadav, a member of Prashant’s group and threatened him with dire consequences. He had mentioned that Prashant was on his target and would have to face severe consequences for insulting him during the party,” said the official.
He said Arpan, with the help of Aman, hatched the entire conspiracy and was following Prashant’s movement for the past 24 hours. Arpan and five others, who were on three motorcycles, attacked Prashant after spotting him outside Alakhnanda Apartments when he came to pick his female friend to go to his friend Alok Yadav’s birthday party in a lounge in Vibhuti Khand on Thursday afternoon.
The official said Aman was accused of being the main conspirator as he was in constant touch with Arpan and other attackers before and after the crime.
“Though Aman’s family claimed that he was at a private hospital on in Indira Nagar at the time of incident, his call details confirmed his association with the attackers and involvement in the crime,” he added. Victim’s heart punctured A cop associated with the probe said the attackers surrounded the SUV in which Prashant Singh was travelling and beat him up after damaging the vehicle. He said Arpan was armed with a sharp-edged knife and attacked Prashant while he was sitting in the SUV on the front seat alongside the driver’s seat. The post-mortem report revealed that Prashant suffered two stab injuries – one on the left hand and the other on the left side of the chest that punctured his heart.
Prashant apparently realised that he had suffered a major injury and tried to run away from the spot, but slumped to the floor in the lift gallery of M-Block of Alakhnanda Apartments and succumbed before reaching the hospital, he said. Assurance to victim’s parents Expressing condolences, Lucknow commissioner of police (CP) Sujeet Pandey assured Prashant Singh’s father, Pradeep Singh, that stern action would be initiated against all the accused.
He met the victim’s family members at the post-mortem house of King George’s Medical University when they were there to claim the victim’s body on Friday.