Amethi murders: Prime accused injured in encounter while trying to escape

Amethi additional superintendent of police said the encounter took place at a deserted stretch under Mohanganj police station limits

The prime accused in the gruesome killings of a Dalit couple and their two infant daughters, Chandan Verma, was shot in the leg in retaliatory firing by police on Saturday morning, hours after the police presented him before the media in Amethi on Friday midnight.

For representation only (HT File Photo)

Amethi additional superintendent of police (ASP), Harendra Kumar, claimed on Saturday that the accused was injured in retaliatory firing when he tried to escape from police custody after snatching the pistol of sub-inspector Madan Kumar Singh when he was being taken to recover some evidence related to the murders.

He said the encounter took place at a deserted stretch under Mohanganj police station limits. He said the accused has been sent in judicial custody after being treated for his wound. He said further investigation is on to establish his involvement in the murders and get him convicted and sentenced in the court of law.

Earlier on Friday midnight, the Amethi police held a press conference claiming to work out the case after the arrest of Chandan Verma by the UP Special Task Force from Jewar Toll Plaza of Gautam Buddh Nagar when he was trying to sneak into the Delhi border to escape from the police.

Amethi superintendent of police (ASP), Anoop Kumar Singh, had claimed that he single-handedly executed the murders of four members of a family, including a primary school teacher Sunil Kumar, 35, his wife, Poonam Bharti, 33, and their two daughters Drishti, 5,

and Micky (18 months old). He said the accused reached their rented house in Bhawani crossing under Shivaratnpur police station limits riding a motorcycle and shot dead the four victims after barging into the house in a crowded residential locality of Amethi late on Thursday evening.

The SP said the murders were a fallout of the enmity between Verma and the family as he had been stalking Poonam Bharti for many years. He said the accused had proximity with the deceased woman before her marriage and he wanted to continue the same even after her marriage. He said the deceased woman had even lodged an FIR against Chandan Verma on August 18 under appropriate sections of BNS for alleged stalking and molestation, as well as beating up her husband in Rae Bareli. Charges under sections of SC/ST Act for atrocities against Dalits were also slapped on the accused in the FIR lodged in Rae Bareli.

He said Verma’s involvement was established in the crime as he had left his motorcycle at some distance from the victims’ house as well as through his mobile location at the spot at the time of incident.