FAIZABAD: Police on Thursday booked Samajwadi Party MLA from Tanda assembly constituency Azim-Ul-Haq alias ‘Pehelwan’ for involvement in murder of localVishwa Hindu Parishad leader Ram Mohan Gupta. FIR was lodged against the SP MLA and his three close aides Shahid, Rahman and Irfan for allegedly murdering local Gupta on Wednesday late night.
The local VHP leader Ram Mohan Gupta was shot dead in his chemist shop in Tanda in Ambedkarnagar district point blank, after which communal tension gripped the town and state government had to depute a large contingent of security forces to control the situation.
Earlier, on March 4, another local VHP leader Ram Babu Gupta was murdered, and VHP and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders had alleged that SP MLA Azim-Ul-Haq ordered his henchmen to kill Gupta.
Tanda on Thursday remained in the grip of tension as all shops and business establishment remained closed and people didn’t came out of their houses. “It was unannounced curfew in Tanda and neither the local administration nor the government seemed to be making any effort to bringing the town back to normal,” said Ishtiyaq Ansari, a local resident .
Meanwhile, BJP state president Laxmi Kant Vajpayee, who visited Tanda, said it was the appeasement policy of the state government at work so the administration was unsuccessful in controlling crime by members of a particular community.