Lucknow, Jan 31: The prime accused in the murder of Chandan Gupta in Kasganj was arrested Wednesday as the strife-torn western Uttar Pradesh town, hit by communal clashes last week, moved towards normalcy despite tension in some pockets, officials said.
The UP government submitted a report on the incidents in Kasganj to the Union Home ministry conveying that the police were probing the violence and whether it was pre-planned, an official said. “Saleem, the main accused, has been nabbed,” IG, Aligarh range, Sanjeev Gupta said.
Saleem, and his two brothers, Naseem and Waseem, were accused of killing 22-year-old college student Chandan Gupta, police officials said. Asked about Saleem’s age, police officials said he was below 30 years.
The killing had led to further violence last week. At least three shops, two buses and a car were torched after Gupta died of gunshot wounds. Communal clashes occurred in the town last week following stone-pelting by a mob on a motorcycle rally taken out to celebrate Republic Day.
“Saleem has admitted that he had opened fire at Chandan,” IG Sanjeev Gupta claimed. Additional DG (Law and Order) Anand Kumar said that according to the FIR and statements by some of the witnesses, Saleem was the person who opened fire from the roof or balcony of his house.
“He is one of the main accused listed in the FIR. We are interrogating him thoroughly and assessing his culpability in the entire episode,” Kumar said. He added the police was now trying to link bullets found in the body of the killed youth with some of the weapons seized. In case there is a forensic match through a ballistic examination, things will stand clear, he said.
Significantly, Aligarh IG Sanjeev Gupta had Tuesday said that “a 9-mm pistol, a crude bomb and a double-barrel gun were recovered from the house of one of the accused”. Giving latest details, ADG Kumar said that in seven substantive cases registered in Kasganj, 39 arrests were made. In addition, a lot of preventive arrests have also been made, he said. Kasganj police officials said that, overall, 150 arrests had been made in connection with the violence. Asked about ‘Tiranga Yatras’ being taken out by the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) in several districts in the backdrop of the Chandan Gupta murder, Kumar said the tricolor is a national symbol and should not evoke any controversy.
PTI
