Prime accused in attack on BJP leader held

GHAZIABAD: The Uttar Pradesh special task force (STF) on Tuesday arrested Manish, the prime accused in the August 11 attack of BJP leader Brijpal Teotia at Murad Nagar in Ghaziabad.

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Sources said Manish, 25, had planned and masterminded the attack nearly four months back and sold three plots of land which fetched him around Rs 75 lakh.

The force recovered a US-made carbine, eight live cartridges and two used cartridges from Manish’s possession. AK-47 and other automatic and semi-automatic weapons were used in the attack.

“Since the attack, he stayed at different locations in Meerut, Dehradun, Jhansi and Madhya Pradesh. He disconnected himself from his accomplices and abstained from using a mobile phone. Till August 14, he was with accused Nishant and later parted ways to stay at a house near Dehradun Cantt,” a police source said.

Officials said Manish paid Rs 10 lakh to cousin Manoj to arrange for two shooters, Bittu and Pehalwan. Another Rs 1 lakh was paid to purchase a Fortuner car robbed by a gang. The gang came in contact through another accused Gaurav Chaudhary who was arrested earlier.

The gang had recceed Teotia’s car several times and even arranged for hammer and axe to break the bulletproof Pajero car during the attack. On August 10, the group followed Teotia’s car but it sped away on the road in Murad Nagar.

They followed Teotia again the next day while he was in his Scorpio car which wasn’t bulletproof. While Teotia and his aides were returning, the group cornered them near the telephone exchange on Rawli Road and fired 52 rounds at them. Two of these rounds were fired from the carbine.

“Since Manish could not control the burst of AK-47, the bullets went haywire,” said RK Mishra, deputy superintendent of police (STF Noida). Manish believed Teotia to be behind the murder of his father Suresh Diwan in 1999 at Delhi. Fourteen people have been accused in the case and eight of them arrested.