Lawyer shot dead inside zila panchayat office; clerk detained with gunshot injury

Bareilly: A 45-year-old lawyer was shot dead in broad daylight inside the Rampur district panchayat office on Wednesday following an alleged altercation with a clerk. Police detained the accused, who was admitted to the hospital with a gunshot injury.Around 1.30 pm, the victim's wife, Gausiya, who works as a clerk at the district panchayat office, allegedly had a heated exchange with the accused, Asgar Ali. Sources said she called her husband, Mohd Farukh, to the office after the argument.Farukh, a resident of Nalapar area, allegedly went to Asgar Ali's cabin, where another verbal altercation took place and soon escalated into a scuffle. During the confrontation, gunshots were fired. Farukh sustained critical injuries and was taken to the district hospital, where doctors declared him dead.Farukh's nephew, Kamran Khan, alleged that Asgar Ali used his licensed revolver to shoot the lawyer and later fired at himself in an attempt to project self-defence.Rampur SP Vidyasagar Mishra said, "The exact sequence of events is being verified, and forensic evidence is being examined. An FIR has been registered against Ali under BNS 103 (murder), and further investigation into the motive and circumstances is underway."Farukh had been practising law at the Rampur district court for nearly 30 years. He is survived by his wife and two children — a son and a daughter — both students at a city school.