BJP worker's death in Varanasi: 9 cops suspended, 5 accused arrested

VARANASI: Nine policemen, including the Nagar Nigam outpost in charge, were suspended on Thursday morning after a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker Pashupati Nath Singh (68) was beaten to death by inebriated men near his home in Jaiprakash Nagar area in Varanasi on Wednesday night.
The incident took place when Singh tried to intervene when his son was being attacked by some rowdy youths at a liquor shop in the neighbourhood.
The two were rushed to the BHU trauma centre but Singh succumbed to injuries before his treatment could be started. On the complaint of Singh's son Rajkumar, 17 people were booked by the police. Five of them have been apprehended.
Police commissioner A Satish Ganesh, on Thursday said, “On the charge of performing laxity in duty leading to the incident in which BJP worker Pashupati Nath Singh was killed, two sub-inspectors, including Nagar Nigam police outpost in-charge Neeraj Ojha and Lalit Kumar Pandey, head constables Devi Yadav, Anup Rai and Mohan Kumar besides constables Ram Avtaar, Nitin, Sudhanshu and Dinesh have been suspended".
The 17 accused who have been named in the FIR are Mantu Saroj, Rahul Saroj, Abhishek, Anup Saroj, Dinesh Pal, Suresh Saroj, Ganesh, Aryan Saroj, Shyam Babu, Suraj, Vishal Rajbhar, Vikas Rajbhar, Manish Pandey, Pawan, Sahil, Sandeep Gupta and Ramesh was lodged with Sigra police on the charges of rioting, murder and attempt to murder, said police.
“Of the 17 named accused, five had been detained for interrogation,” said the CP, adding, “Teams have been engaged for the arrest of all the accused. The body has been handed over to the victim’s family after postmortem examination.”
Singh’s family members said that while consuming liquor outside a country-made liquor shop near their home, Mantu and Rahul along with their accomplices were fighting with persons present there. Rajkumar reached there and asked them to leave the place. Mantu and his accomplices left after threatening Rajkumar.
After a few minutes, Mantu along with over 30 accomplices raided the place and attacked Rajkumar with sticks, iron rods and bricks. On hearing his cries, Singh ran to save Rajkumar but he was also attacked. Terror-struck neighbours remained indoors when the two were being attacked. After the assailants fled the scene, Singh and Rajkumar were rushed to the trauma centre of BHU where doctors declared Singh as brought dead.
On getting information, BJP city unit president Vidyasagar Rai, local MLA and other leaders reached the hospital. Rai said that Singh was a dedicated party worker for decades. Singh had been fielded in the last municipal polls on a BJP ticket but lost, said Rai adding, he was also in the executive committee of the party's city unit.
During the initial investigation, it came to light that Mantu is the leader of the gang.