Sitapur,

07 Aug (HS): In Sitapur, about five months ago, both the shooters involved in

the daylight murder of Maholi town journalist Raghvendra Bajpai, associated

with a newspaper, were killed in an encounter on Thursday morning in a joint

operation of Sitapur Police and STF. Both the criminals killed in the encounter

were wanted after the murder, with a reward of Rs 1 lakh declared on their

head. Police was continuously chasing them.

After

several months of the murder, the family members of the slain journalist

Raghavendra Vajpayee were not satisfied with the revelations made by a Baba who

was earlier sent to jail on charges of murder and the police. A month ago, the

family members of journalist Raghavendra Vajpayee had also met Chief Minister

Yogi Adityanath, after which the pressure on the police was continuously

increasing.

Sitapur

Superintendent of Police Ankur Aggarwal told about the encounter that the STF

and Sitapur police were keeping an eye on the shooters. The information about

the two criminals killed was that they were present in the Pisawan area under

Maholi town.

During

checking, both the criminals riding the bike tried to escape by firing but were

killed in retaliatory action by the police. Doctors declared them dead in the

district hospital. The two shooters involved in the murder of journalist

Raghavendra Vajpayee in the encounter that took place on Thursday morning have

been identified as Raju alias Rizwan Ghazi and Sanjay alias Akeel Khan,

residents of village Atwa under Misrikh town. According to the police, both of

them were real brothers. According to the information, their father is Muslim

and mother is Hindu, so both these criminals used the names of both religions.

Journalist

Raghavendra was murdered on March 8. Journalist Raghavendra Vajpayee was

murdered on March 8 in broad daylight on Hempur Overbridge. After this famous

murder case, people from journalist organizations and political parties in the

district had put pressure on the police to disclose the incident. After that,

the then SP Chakresh Mishra disclosed this incident and arrested Shivanand

alias Vikas Rathore, the so-called priest of Kare Dev temple, and sent him to

jail.

According

to the police, the journalist had seen priest Shivanand in an objectionable

condition. Therefore, Shivanand had conspired to kill journalist Raghavendra

Vajpayee and the two criminals who were killed in the police encounter on

Thursday were given the contract to kill by Baba Shivanand. The police claimed

to have recovered a gun and other weapons from the two criminals killed in the

police encounter.

Hindusthan Samachar / Abhishek Awasthi