The UP Special Task Force (STF) arrested a key accused in the murder of a Block Panchayat member of Moradabad, from Saharanpur, on Wednesday night, senior police officials said here on Thursday.
They said the location of the accused was tracked for around 16 months, and he kept changing his location and stayed at different places in Punjab and Haryana to evade arrest, adding that he carried an award of ₹1 lakh on his head.
A senior STF official said the accused was identified as Bijnor resident, Vikash Singh Dhama, who was involved in the sensational killing of the block panchayat member Anuj Chaudhary, when Chaudhary was walking near his house in Parshvanath Colony of Moradabad on August 10, 2023. He said two motorcycle-borne assailants shot him dead.
He said Dhama was among the gang of assailants, who performed reconnaissance of the slain block panchayat member and carried out the killing. He said the block panchayat member’s killing was executed by contract killers, who were offered ₹30 lakh by Prabhakar Chaudhary and Anikesh Chaudhary, husband and son, respectively, of sitting Block Pramukh Santosh Devi.
The official said the murder was fallout of the multiple enmities of Anuj Chaudhary, and three different groups joined hands to execute his killing. He said Anuj had contested for the post of Block Pramukh against Santosh Devi and had lost election in August 2021. He said he tried bringing a no-confidence motion against Santosh Devi, but his plan was foiled as the state government made new restrictions that no confidence motion against elected Block Pramukh could not be brought before two years. So, he was planning to bring a no-confidence motion against Santosh Devi on August 20, 2023, after completion of two years and her husband and son were troubled with it so they made a plan to eliminate him.
{{/usCountry}}The official said the murder was fallout of the multiple enmities of Anuj Chaudhary, and three different groups joined hands to execute his killing. He said Anuj had contested for the post of Block Pramukh against Santosh Devi and had lost election in August 2021. He said he tried bringing a no-confidence motion against Santosh Devi, but his plan was foiled as the state government made new restrictions that no confidence motion against elected Block Pramukh could not be brought before two years. So, he was planning to bring a no-confidence motion against Santosh Devi on August 20, 2023, after completion of two years and her husband and son were troubled with it so they made a plan to eliminate him.
{{/usCountry}}He said one Mohit Chowdhary along with his brother Amit Chowdhary joined hands with Santosh Devi’s husband and son, as Anuj Chowdhary had attacked Mohit in 2020 when he was contesting election of block member in which he lost his eye. Later, one Karamveer Singh also joined hands with them as he wanted to get rid of Anuj Chowdhary following his regular pressure to return ₹70 lakh which he borrowed from him.
He said earlier nine people involved in the murder including Prabhakar Chaudhary, his son Aniket, Aniket’s friend Neeraj Pal, Amit Chowdhary, Kamal Veer Singh and his Pushpendra Singh as well as three contract killers, Surya Kant Sharma, Sushil Sharma, Akash Kashyap were arrested in 2023.