Dispute over liquor: Man shot dead

PILIBHIT: A 40-year-old Dalit man was allegedly shot dead by his three colleagues over a dispute over distillation of illicit liquor on Saturday night.

Bilsanda

police station SHO

Chandra Prakash Shukla

told TOI, “An FIR has been registered against Bablu Singh, Shankar Pal and Durgesh Pal under section 302 (murder) and 3 (2) (V) of SC/ST Act. The accused would be arrested soon.”

According to

Urmila Devi

, the wife of deceased Satish, alias,

Pappu

, a resident of Pasgavan village under Bilsanda police station, her husband was employed by the trio as a daily wager on Saturday morning, but he did not return home.

Urmila Devi said Gulzari Lal, the elder brother of her husband, first spotted the body on Sunday morning. “The bullet-ridden body was lying near a hand pump on the government school campus.”

She claimed that she had heard gunshots around the midnight and suspected that her husband was murdered by the trio who had taken him with them on the pretext of offering him a job.

Meanwhile, Bablu’s wife Maya Devi told mediapersons that her husband, Shankar Pal and Durgesh Pal were also taken to the jungle, along with the deceased, by one Pawan

Sharma

of the same village. “Pawan has an illicit liquor manufacturing unit in the forest region of Deuria range under Pilibhit tiger reserve. The gun used to kill Satish was of Pawan,” she said while claiming that her husband is innocent.