Date:13/06/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/06/13/stories/2007061303331300.htm

Front Page

SP youth leader gunned down

Special Correspondent

LUCKNOW: A Samajwadi Party leader, Amarnath Yadav, was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Mau town of Eastern Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday. He was the district president of the Samajwadi Yuvjan Sabha.

In the mob violence that followed the killing, some policemen sustained injuries as supporters of the Samajwadi youth wing leader resorted to heavy brickbat of the police station. The Superintendent of Police of Mau, Ashutosh Kumar, was among those injured.

A State Home Department spokesman said here that the police resorted to lathi charge to disperse the mob which was demanding the arrest of the culprits. The cause of the crime was not known. The police were trying to verify whether the broad daylight murder was a fallout of political rivalry, or personal enmity, the spokesman said.

The 26-year old deceased was sitting in the Yuvjan Sabha office when he was mowed down by two motorcycle-borne youths at around 11.45 a.m. Mr. Yadav died on the spot.

State Home Secretary Javeed Ahmed told newsmen that the deceased was involved in seven cases under Sections 302, 307, 308 of the IPC, Goonda Act and the SC/ST Act. Mr. Ahmed described the situation as tense but under control with the police on the lookout for the unidentified assailants.

The Yuvjan Sabha leader is the fourth Samajwadi Party supporter to have been killed in different parts of the State in the last one month. Earlier, two SP supporters were killed in Sultanpur district, allegedly by Bahujan Samaj Party workers. This was followed by the murder of an SP corporator in Varanasi.