Police arrested three shooters after two separate encounters in Moradabad on Tuesday morning. The arrested shooters – injured in the shootout – were involved in the contract killing of BJP leader Anuj Choudhary.
Hemraj Meena, SSP, Moradabad, said that police received inputs that the three shooters Sushil Sharma, Suryakant Sharma and Aakash Kashyap, would be arriving in town to surrender in court.
Teams of Civil Lines and Manjhola police station started vehicle-checking and they spotted three people on two motorcycles. When they asked them to stop near village Agwanpur of Civil Lines area, the suspects opened fire on the police. In the retaliatory firing, one criminal was shot in the leg while his two aides managed to escape.
Police parties gave them chase and another encounter took place between the criminals and police and both criminals sustained bullet injuries to their legs.
The SSP said that two constables, Gajendra and Sandeep Nagar, also sustained injuries during the exchange of fire.
The injured criminals and police constables were admitted to hospital for treatment.
{{/usCountry}}The injured criminals and police constables were admitted to hospital for treatment.
{{/usCountry}}Police have recovered two motorcycles, one pistol and two country-made firearms from the arrested people.
BJP leader Anuj Choudhary was shot dead on August 10 when he was walking on the road with a friend in Parshvnath Pratibha colony. Police arrested Asmauli block pramukh Santosh Devi’s son, Aniket and his friend, Neerajpal last week, who confessed to hiring three shooters for ₹30 lakh to eliminate Anuj Choudhary. They said that ₹6 lakh had been paid to them in advance.
Other accused in the case are Aniket’s father, Prabhakar Choudhary, Amit Choudhary and Puspendra who are still at large.
Aniket and Neerajpal told the police that the contract killers had to reach Nainital, where a resort had been booked for them, but they didn’t go there.
Aniket and his father hatched a conspiracy to eliminate Anuj Choudhary because the latter was preparing to bring a no-confidence motion against Aniket’s mother Santosh Devi. Anuj Choudhary contested the election of Asmauli block pramukh against Santosh Devi but had lost by 10 votes.