US Nagar BJP leader shot dead

HALDWANI: A local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader was shot dead allegedly by his neighbour in a dispute over the path to a mining lease area in Shantipuri of Udham Singh Nagar district on Saturday morning, police said.

The accused fled after firing at Sandeep Singh Karki, 35, who was the BJP general secretary of Pantnagar-Shantipuri mandal. Police rushed to the spot on information and took the body into their possession and sent it for post-mortem. Police said they are conducting raids to arrest the accused.

According to the police, Karki had built a house in Preet Vihar area of Rudrapur and got a mining lease for extracting riverbed material in Shantipuri, for which he had created a pathway through his fields.

On Saturday morning, when Karki reached Shantipuri from Rudrapur along with his wife, he found that his neighbour, Lalit Mehta, had blocked the pathway leading to the mining lease area. Karki then started opening the pathway. Seeing

Police teams are conducting raids and soon all accused will be arrested. MANJUNATH TC,

this, Lalit Mehta reached there with his brother and father and a fight broke out.

Police said enraged Lalit Mehta fired at Karki’s chest. Hearing the sound of a gunshot, the relatives of Karki along with locals rushed to the spot and took him to the government hospital in Kichha, from where he was referred to a hospital in Rudrapur. In Rudrapur, the doctors declared him brought dead. As soon as the news of Karki’s death spread, there was an uproar in the area.

Manjunath TC, senior superintendent of police of Udham Singh Nagar, said, “Search is on to arrest the accused. Police teams are conducting raids and soon all the accused will be arrested.”

SSP