UP: 2 held for ‘murder’ of water department official after police encounter

Sultanpur (UP), Aug 18 (PTI) An assistant engineer of the Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam and his aide were arrested on Sunday after an encounter with police in connection with the alleged murder of an executive engineer of the department here, officials said.

Ad hoc assistant engineer Amit Kumar and his aide Pradeep were shot in the legs during the encounter, police said.

As a police team surrounded the accused, the duo opened fire. They got injured in retaliatory firing, Additional Superintendent of Police Arun Chandra said.

Police said the accused from Bihar have been hospitalised. They were trying to flee after allegedly killing executive engineer Santosh Kumar, 40, over a dispute, police said.

In the police complaint, the brother of the deceased claimed that Santosh Kumar was planning to blacklist a firm working under the Jal Jeevan Mission. This irked Amit Kumar who decided to kill Santosh Kumar, according to the complaint.

The post-mortem report of the deceased confirmed that he was smothered to death, police said.

Santosh Kumar was allegedly killed at his rented house in the Vinobapuri area here on Saturday, police said.

His driver Sandeep, who also stayed on the premises, had gone out to buy breakfast. When he returned, he saw the engineer being attacked by some men who asked him to flee the spot, they said.

Hearing Sandeep’s screams, the guards at the Jal Nigam office, located 50 metres away, rushed to the spot. They took Santosh Kumar to a district hospital where doctors declared him dead, police said.