By IANS,
Lucknow : The Uttar Pradesh police have identified one of the attackers who was killed in Wednesday’s crossfire between a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) member and four assailants in Varanasi. He has been identified as Ramesh Yadav, also known as Babu Yadav, a Samajwadi Party corporator.
BSP member Dharmendra Singh was injured Wednesday evening when gunmen opened fire at his car, killing his driver. While one of the attackers was killed in the return fire, the other two assailants fell to police bullets when they tried to escape.
“Babu’s family members identified his body late on Thursday evening and it was later handed over to them,” Varanasi police chief Vijay Prakash told IANS on phone.
Two other assailants managed to flee from the spot after the shootout but the police were able to nab them.
“While being taken to the police station, they tried to escape and the police were forced to open fire on them,” Prakash said.
According to police sources, Babu was a close associate of one of Uttar Pradesh’s most wanted dons, Munna Bajrangi, who carries a cash reward of Rs.700,000 on his head.
“Babu had two dozen cases lodged against him including those of murder and was released on bail from the Ghazipur district jail a few months ago,” Prakash added.
“Dharmendra is a close associate of (jailed mafia don) Brijesh Singh who was evading the law for about 20 years and was arrested in Bhubaneswar in January. Bajrangi was once a member of Brijesh’s gang.” the source added.