Ballia shooting case: UP Police nabs Dheerendra Singh from Lucknow

The Uttar Pradesh police had earlier said that it would invoke the stringent National Security Act and Gangster Act against the main accused who was responsible for the death of the man.

The Uttar Pradesh police has nabbed Dheerendra Singh for the alleged murder of a 46-year-old man from Lucknow on Sunday.

Special Task Force (STF) of UP Police arrested Dhirendra Singh, the main accused of the Ballia incident, in Lucknow. (PTI)

Dheerendra Singh, is the Ballia unit president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Sainik Prakosht (servicemen’s cell). Dheerendra Singh has been accused of shooting a 46-year-old man because of a dispute related to allocation of a fair price shop at Durjanpur and Hanumanganj villages.

The Uttar Pradesh police had earlier said that it would invoke the stringent National Security Act and Gangster Act against the main accused who was responsible for the death of the man. The police then set up a Special Task Force which nabbed Dheerendra Singh from the state capital.

Dhirendra Singh, the main accused in the murder of a 46-year-old man in Ballia has been arrested. He was held from Lucknow on Sunday morning near Polytechnic area,” IG of Special Task Force (STF) Amitabh Yash told news agency PTI.

The three other accused who have been arrested in this case have been identified as Munna Yadav, Raj Pratap Yadav and Rajan Tewari. The UP police had formed 12 teams to arrest the accused in this case. Police had also announced a reward of ₹50,000 for information on their whereabouts.

The Ballia firing case led to harsh criticism of the state of law and order in Uttar Pradesh. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi had accused the UP government of shielding criminal. She also said that the UP government has a “a politically motivated narrative” which is “justifying and protecting perpetrators”.