Two men arrested for killing village chief

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police in a joint operation with the Bihar Police arrested two persons for allegedly killing a woman who was elected the mukhiya of a gram panchayat

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police in a joint operation with the Bihar Police arrested two persons for allegedly killing a woman who was elected the mukhiya of a gram panchayat on June 3.

HT Image

Balram Prasad, 42, and Santosh Yadav, 26, who were on the police radar, were arrested from Wazirpur village and Ashok Vihar.

The police said Prasad’s wife was also contesting the gram panchayat election, but was defeated by Poonam Devi by a margin of 28 votes. This irked him and he hatched a plan to kill her.

He allegedly roped in Yadav, a contract killer for the job, and shot Poonam Devi dead. Yadav, the police said was a proclaimed offender and was also wanted in two other cases of murder in Bihar.

A case of murder was registered in Bihar on June 10 on the statement of one Inderjeet, Devi’s husband. He alleged his wife defeated her rival by a big margin. This agitated Prasad, who threatened her with dire consequences.

He said on the day of the incident, Devi was going on a motorcycle with one Jai Parkash Gupta. He said he was riding another motorcycle, when three persons -- Pappu Singh, Santosh Yadav and Pintu Yadav -- intercepted them and shot Devi using a countrymade pistol.

“Following the complaint, a team of the Bihar Police came to Ashok Vihar after they received information about the men having escaped to Delhi. The team sought assistance from the local police and accordingly a team was formed.

“Local intelligence channels were activated to collect information on the accused persons. We also set up technical surveillance. The photographs of the suspects were shared with the sources.

“On the basis of available infor mation and technical surveillance, the joint team conducted raids at several places in Wazirpur Village and Ashok Vihar and the men were arrested,” DCP Northwest, Vijay Singh, said.