Samajwadi Party leader shot at Tilpatta chowk in Greater Noida; no case filed

A Samajwadi Party politician has been shot at by unidentified men in Greater Noida, within 12 hours of the killing of a local party unit chief in Gautam Buddh Nagar, police said Saturday. The incident took place late on Friday night when Brajpal Rathi, the party's district secretary was returning to his house in Eta sector in an SUV accompanied by a friend and driver, the police said.

"Rathi was sitting in the second row of the Toyota Fortuner when the unidentified assailants targeted him near the Tilpatta chowk and he got a bullet injury in one of his hands. The men then fled and Rathi was taken to a hospital where he was treated and said to be out of danger," a police spokesperson said.

Surajpur police station, under whose jurisdiction the incident took place, has not registered any FIR so far in the case as it has not received any complaint, the official said. Official sources, requesting anonymity, told PTI that it appears to be a "self-hatched" episode by Rathi to get police security again.

Rathi was previously given police security which was withdrawn with the model code of conduct for the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections coming into effect, the spokesperson said. Meanwhile, the office bearers of Samajwadi Party will be meeting Gautam Buddh Nagar police chief Vaibhav Krishna to take up the matter with him. "We are scheduled to meet the SSP this afternoon where senior party workers, including former Gautam Buddh Nagar MP, Surendra Nagar, will be present,” party's district unit chief Veer Singh Yadav told PTI.

President of the SP's Dadri assembly segment unit Ramtek Kataria was shot dead by unidentified assailants near his home in Dadri on Friday. The police are probing that matter but have prima facie ruled out political conspiracy in the case, which they said is a result of personal enmity with his extended family.

Another SP leader Lalji Yadav was shot dead Friday morning in Jaunpur district in a similar manner when unidentified bike-borne men sprayed his body with bullets and fled. The Jaunpur police also ruled out politics in killing of Yadav, who worked as a property dealer and also had criminal cases including those of loot and murder against him. Jaunpur police chief Ashish Tiwari said FIR under IPC section 302 (murder) has been registered and probe underway.

-PTI