15 get 8 years in jail for attacking BJP leader
GHAZIABAD: A Ghaziabad court on Saturday sentenced 15 persons to eight years of imprisonment and a fine of ₹30,000 each under the Gangsters Act. The court gave the verdict in connection with the attack on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Brijpal Teotia on August 11, 2016. The assailants had used AK-47, carbines and automatic weapons during the attack and the BJP leader was critically injured with multiple bullet wounds.
On the day of the incident, Teotia’s SUV was attacked by more than half a dozen gunmen while he was on his way back
home to Ghaziabad city from Muradnagar.
Police claimed that almost 40-50 rounds were fired on his
car by the assailants, who were in another car.
Soon after the incident, Ghaziabad Police recovered the
AK-47 rifle, 9mm pistols and other arms used by the fleeing assailants from a location in Modinagar.
During investigation, police arrested prime accused Manish Diwan and others and also levied provisions of the UP Gangsters and Anti-social Activities (Prevention) Act.
It was alleged that Diwan had planned the entire attack due to a personal rivalry with Teotia.
“The case was under trial against 16 suspects and the court held them guilty. One of the suspects (Vijay Bahadur) died during the course of the trial. The suspects had other criminal records against their names,” said Varun Tyagi, special public prosecutor.
The court in its order said that the violent act committed by the accused led to a sense of insecurity among citizens and it was a fit case to hold the accused guilty under the Gangsters Act.
The names of 16 accused are Manish Diwan, Nishant Bhadauriya, Rahul Tyagi, Ram Kumar, Abhishek Mal, Shokendra Pal, Vicky Chaudhary, Raju Singh, Shekhar Chaudhary, Gaurav Bhati, Babbal Thakur, Bittu Pal, Jitendra Singh, Manoj Kumar, Sansar Singh and Vijay Bahadur. Shekhar Chaudhary also allegedly hatched a conspiracy to attack journalist Anuj Chaudhary in 2018 from jail.