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Armed assailants gun down BJP leader in Jaunpur
The deceased, Pramod Kumar Yadav, a resident of Bodhapur village, was the BJP district unit secretary and a popular other backward classes (OBC) leader in the area
LUCKNOW A local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader was killed in a sensational broad daylight shooting after two unidentified assailants pumped six bullets into his body from close range in Jaunpur district of Uttar Pradesh on Thursday, police said.
The deceased, Pramod Kumar Yadav, 55, a resident of Bodhapur village, was the BJP district unit secretary and a popular other backward classes (OBC) leader in the area.
Yadav was in his car and had travelled a little distance from his residence in Bodhapur when two assailants, who came on a two-wheeler, signalled to stop his car and shot him from close range at around 10am, Jaunpur superintendent of police (SP) Ajay Pal Sharma said. “Yadav’s family members and locals rushed him to the district hospital, where doctors declared him dead,” the SP said.
During preliminary investigation, locals informed the police that the assailants fired around 10 rounds at Yadav from close range, he said. “Yadav suffered six bullet wounds — three in the abdomen and one each in the shoulder, hand and thigh,” the SP said. “We have deployed teams to investigate the case. So far, family members have not raised suspicion on anyone...”
The senior officer said they suspect involvement of three suspects as a third person was spotted with the bike at some distance and allegedly helped the two shooters flee. The body has been sent for the post-mortem examination, the SP said. Till late on Thursday, no first information report (FIR) was registered in the incident.
Yadav, who had been associated with the BJP for long, also unsuccessfully contested the assembly polls from Rari seat, later renamed as Malhani, in 2007 as an independent candidate.
“Police teams are also looking into the angle of old enmity as Yadav’s father Rajbali Yadav was also murdered in a similar manner around 35 years ago,” another police officer said.
The incident came within 24 hours of former Jaunpur MP Dhananjay Singh and his aide were jailed for seven years in a 2020 case of kidnapping.
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