Land dispute whiff in death

Patna: Bahujan Samaj Party leader Khunti Yadav was killed over a land dispute, police said on Sunday after recording his son Yashwant Yadav’s statement in Varanasi.

A Buxar police team visited Varanasi to record the statement of Yashwant, who was also critically injured in the attack late on Friday night. Yashwant, the police said, stated that the conspiracy to eliminate Khunti, former mukhiya of Nadao panchayat in Buxar district, was hatched by six persons including sarpanch Chitranjan Choudhary.

Five of Choudhary’s associates, including Dadan Choudhary, Kanchan Choudhary, Umashankar Singh, and Rameshwar Choudhary, have been named in the FIR lodged with Buxar town police station.

Yashwant told the police that the Choudharys were unhappy with Khunti after he got six bighas of land registered in his name. Khunti, Yashwant said, purchased the plot of land from a close relative of the accused.

Buxar town police station house officer (SHO) Avinash Kumar said all the six named accused are absconding. “A team conducted raids on the village of the accused, Jagdishpur, but they were not found,” he told The Telegraph.

He, however, did not rule out the involvement of contract killers in the murder. “The incident took place when the father and son were waiting at the Itarhi railway crossing. Khunti was shot from point-blank range, which hints at the involvement of a professional gang,” Avinash said.

Sources said the police have also launched raids to nab two alleged sharpshooters Bade and Chhote.

Yashwant has also told the police that one of the assailants asked his father to open the windowpane and as he did, he was shot twice – one bullet hit his head, which proved fatal.

Yashwant was driving the SUV and his father was on the passenger seat at the time of the murder. “The assailant also fired at me. Some locals took my injured father and me to the hospital where he (father) was declared brought dead,” Yashwant said.

Yashwant was referred to Patna Medical College and Hospital but the family took him to a hospital in Varanasi.

SHO Avinash said the assailants had done a recce before the attack. “It seems that they were aware of the time when Khunti used to return home after closing his medicine shop. Last year he had survived a murderous attack,” he said.

Courtesy: The Telegraph