Lucknow: BJP president Amit Shah on Friday stalled his padyatra in Meerut in reverence to a trader who was shot dead by dacoits and four other traders were injured on Thursday night. Later Mr Shah visited the house of the deceased and offered his condolences.
The BJP president cited the incident as an example of the deteriorating law and order situation in the state and asked traders to vote out the Akhilesh government for their own safety and security.
He said that the “two princes of Congress and Samajwadi Party wanted to destroy the fabric of UP and the country”. The BJP chief’s padyatra was scheduled to move through the Sharda Road before reaching out to the traders’ community in Kabari Bazaar, Sarrafa, Valley Bazaar and other adjoining markets.
BJP city president Karunesh Nanndan Garg said that in the wake of unfortunate incident, Mr Shah decided to stall the padyatra and visit the deceased house instead. Traders are considered to be the traditional voters of the BJP but have been unhappy due to the demonetisation that affected their trade. Meerut is in the crucial and communally sensitive region of western Uttar Pradesh where the party had fared well in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
Meanwhile, according to reports, Sushil Verma, a distributor of a famous gutka brand, was finalising the account of day’s sale along with his son Abhishek at his office on Sharda Road on Thursday night. His agent Rohit also came there to deposit some money from sale when three dacoits allegedly followed him and entered the office while two others kept guard outside the office. They looted cash worth Rs 3 lakh and jewellery after taking them on gunpoint and downed the shutter before fleeing. The trapped traders somehow lifted the shutter and chased criminals and caught one of them.
One of the dacoits opened fire and the bullet hit Abhishek, 21, on his chest and Mr Verma also sustained injury on his hand while two other shopkeepers Umesh and Akhil, who dared to chase the criminals, also received injuries.
