Indiscriminate firing at sweet meat shop; argument likely cause

KANPUR : An unspecified number of SUV-borne miscreants fired indiscriminately at a sweet meat shop in Auraiya Kotwali area on Thursday. Auraiya is about 90 km from Kanpur.

The place of the crime is just few metres away from the residence of Auraiya district magistrate. The bullets hit the items in the shop but no one was injured in the attack, police said. The firing caused panic in the area and people were seen running for cover while shop-keepers downed their shutters.

The assailants, riding a Mahendra Scorpio vehicle, fired more eight rounds at the shop in their 15 minute attack in the area that is considered most secured in the district. Police did not arrive on the scene for about 30 minutes after information was passed on to them, allege the traders. Circle officer (city) Surendra Nath Yadav said a complaint was being filed and teams had been constituted to arrest the attackers.

According to Vivek Gupta, owner of the sweet meat shop, some of his employees had an argument with some customers on January 25 and he suspects them to be behind the firing at his shop. He had filed a complaint with police about the incident.

The traders, led by their leaders Sudhir Purwar and Brijendra Gupta, later gherao the Kotwali. They said had the police acted on Gupta’s complaint on Wednesday itself, the assailants would not have acted with such audacity.

Meanwhile, police assured the traders that action would be taken in the case soon. Borders of the district were sealed and cops were hunting for the attackers, police said.