Sanjeev Maheshwari alias ‘Jeeva’, the jailed gangster and former aide of Mukhtar Ansari was shot dead inside a courtroom in Lucknow on Wednesday by a shooter masquerading as a lawyer, in yet another fatal attack on undertrials in Uttar Pradesh.
A young girl and two cops were also injured in Wednesday’s shootout at the SC/ST court. It sparked a massive commotion among the advocate community who staged a protest outside the court.
An infant aged less than 2 years was also injured and was receiving treatment. Jeeva succumbed to his injuries during treatment while the injured are reported to be stable.
Announcement made on the former aide of Mukhtar Ansari
Yogi Aditynath, the Chief Minister of UP announced the formation of a three-member special investigation team (SIT) to probe the killing and called for the investigation to be completed within a week.
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The SIT will look into the alleged lapses in the High Court-prescribed security arrangement for courts in terms of equipment and manpower and also whether the standard operating procedure (SOP) prepared at the local level for checking people entering the court was adhered to or not, said the special director general (SDG) of police Prashant Kumar speaking to the reporters.
Vijay Yadav, the assailant hailing from Jaunpur, opened fire when Jeeva was brought into the courtroom in the SC/ST court in Lucknow for a hearing. The police, aided by some advocates, apprehended him soon after the incident. Yadav was also injured and is undergoing treatment.
The murder of Jeeva follows the killings of Atique Ahmed and his brother Ashraf Ahmed in Prayagraj in April.
Jeeva came from Muzaffarnagar, a city in Uttar Pradesh, which had a total of 24 cases of murder, extortion, etc. lodged against him, out of which he had been acquitted in 17 and was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2003 for the murder of former BJP minister Brahma Dutt Dwivedi for which former Samajwadi Party MLA Vijay Singh was also sentenced.
The gangster was also accused in the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai, along with Ansari.
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