Engineering dropout stabbed to death in Gomti Nagar extn

LUCKNOW: A 25-year-old engineering dropout was stabbed to death in broad daylight by a group of assailants at the entrance of a guarded group housing society, in posh Gomti Nagar extension, here on Thursday afternoon, police said.

Lucknow commissioner of police (CP) Sujeet Pandey said initial probe suggested that the crime was a fall-out of a dispute between two groups of students of a private university and that efforts were on to nab the assailants.

He said the two groups had a scuffle during a party at a restaurant in Safedabad on Lucknow Barabanki border two days ago and that was the trigger behind Thursday’s murder.

Pandey said the deceased was identified as Varanasi resident Prashant Singh, who stayed in a rented accommodation in Gomti Nagar’s Vijay Khand locality.

The CP added that Prashant was an engineering (third year) drop out from the private university while the alleged attackers were LLB (second year) students of the educational institute.

Pandey said Prashant’s accomplice has named one Arpan Shukla, LLB (second year) student and his 4-5 accomplices in the complaint submitted to police.

Security guard Ashok Yadav of Alakhnanda Apartments, at the gate of which the murder took place, said the victim had come in an SUV to meet a person known to him at the apartments when a group of assailants, waiting a few meters from the entrance gate, attacked him when the SUV halted at the entrance barrier.

He said the victim and another person in the SUV stopped at the entrance barrier at around 3.35 pm and wanted to enter the

premises without verification. “They then tried to drive in when I lifted the barrier for another car having the society pass,” he said.

“I intercepted the SUV riders to know their identity when a group people from outside reached there and attacked them,” he stated and added, “The assailants broke the window glass and stabbed one of them (Prashant) before fleeing from the spot.” He said the victim suffered stab wound in the chest and tried to run into the apartments before he slumped to the ground and succumbed to his injuries.

Assistant commissioner of police (ACP), Gomti Nagar, SanKumar Singh said the police have retrieved the CCTV footage and further efforts are on to trace the killers.

He said the victim’s body has been sent for post-mortem examination and his family members in Varanasi have been informed about the incident.