Gram Pradhan shot dead in UP's Mau district

VARANASI: In a dispute of auction of a fishery pond, a Gram Pradhan (village chief) Munna Rai was shot dead by some youths of his own Aslampur village under the limits of Chiraiyyakot police station in Mau district on Sunday.
The incident led to tension in the village after which police force was deployed there to avoid recurrence of any untoward incident. SO Chiraiyyakot Vinod Kumar Tiwari said that all assailants have been identified and efforts are on for their early arrest.
Reports stated that under the supervision of Gram Pradhan a pond of gram sabha of Aslampur village is auctioned for fishery every year. To follow same provision Rai had summoned all villagers near primary school building to take part in auction process. Villagers said that some officials from block headquarters had also to reach the auction venue.
However, before the officials could reach there, a group of local youths started quarreling with Rai. Following exchange of heated words they shot bullets on Rai, who died on the spot. The incident led to a chaos at auction venue as villagers started running helter skelter to save them. Taking advantage of it the assailants fled the scene.
On getting information heavy police force reached the village. Following initial investigation the body of Rai had been sent for postmortem, said Tiwari adding, on the basis of complaint given by Rai’s family a named FIR is being lodged in this connection. He claimed that the accused persons would be nabbed very soon.