BJP office-bearer shot dead in UP’S Jaunpur, main accused arrested

A BHARATIYA Janata Party (BJP) office-bearer was shot dead by unidentified assailants at Udhapur village in Uttar Pradesh's Jaunpur district on Thursday.

One person has been arrested in this connection, police said. The incident took place around 10 am when some persons intercepted Pramod Yadav (55) when he was travelling in his car and opened fire at him, they added.

Jaunpur Superintendent of Police Ajay Pal said, “A case has been registered against four persons under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code. We have taken the main accused in the case in custody, while teams have been dispatched to arrest others. The motive behind the murder is an old enmity. We are not revealing the identity of the accused at this point.”

Earlier in a statement, the SP said, “The police received information about Pramod Yadav being stopped by some people at Udhapur village under the Sikrara police station jurisdiction on the pretext of giving him some cards. Then they opened fire at him. By the time he was taken to a hospital by locals, he was declared dead. Our teams are working, and we have received some information about some suspects. As per information, three people attacked him.”

Yadav sustained three-four bullets in his body, it is learnt.

Jaunpur ASP (rural) SK Singh said the post-mortem of the body was conducted by a panel of doctors and that the police are awaiting a written complaint from the family. “We are probing the case on priority and will release more details soon," said Singh.

Yadav had filed his nomination papers for the Assembly elections in 2012 from the Malhani constituency in Jaunpur but his papers were rejected. He was currently a 'zila mantri' of the BJP for Jaunpur.

“This (Yadav’s death) has come as a huge loss to us,” said BJP district president (Jaunpur) Pushpraj Singh.