Cops arrest man for helping accused son, others flee

LUCKNOW: A day after a group of miscreants shot at a man in Vibhuti Khand when he tried to stop them from harassing a woman accompanying him, the police on Tuesday arrested the father of the main accused in Barabanki district for aiding his son.

The arrest was made by a team of Vibhuti Khand police that was sent to Barabanki in search of the main accused, Ajay Pratap Singh.

“The SUV used in the crime was found parked outside the residence of the accused. The country-made firearm that Ajay used was also recovered from the vehicle,” said Kalanidhi Naithani, SSP, Lucknow.

“Ajay and the others accused were also in the house when police reached there, but his father Ashok Kumar alerted his son and his friends about the police team and they managed to flee from there. So, the team arrested the father for aiding the accused,” he added.

The police team charged the father under Section 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 212 (harbouring offender).

The accused Ajay Pratap, his friend Rahul Singh and two others reportedly left their residence for Lucknow on Sunday evening.

In the state capital, the accused had an altercation with one Ankit Singh when they allegedly harassed a woman accompanying the latter. The altercation flared up and Ajay shot at Ankit with a country-made pistol and fled.

The SSP has already sent the in-charge of the police outpost where the incident occurred, to police lines for not intimating his seniors about the incident.

The incident was recorded in a CCTV cam near the spot. “We were able to identify the vehicle in which accused fled. It was traced to Barabanki and a police team was sent to search for the vehicle,” said the SSP.

Besides the police team that arrested the father and brought him to Lucknow, another team is searching for the accused in Barabanki.