Firing, blasts at court in Faizabad, 1 dead

Five persons, including Monu, were injured in blasts. Monu sustained injury in his legs. The injured are admitted to King George Medical University, Lucknow. Two of them, Manoj Kumar Singh and Rajkumar Singh, are said to be critical.

Monu is the brother of former MLA and BJP leader Chandrabhadra Singh alias Sonu Singh, who has cases against him filed at the Kudebhar police station in Sultanpur.

Sonu was a BSP MLA fr-om Sultanpur in the previous Assembly and joined the BJP before the LS polls. He played a major role in organising the party’s campaign in Sultanpur. Before joining the BSP, Sonu was an MLA of the SP from erstwhile Isauli seat of Sultanpur. On Wednesday, Monu appeared in the court of district and sessions judge D S Tripathi as main accused in the murder of a revenue clerk, Ram Kumar Yadav. The blasts and the firing took place after his appearance in court. Additional DG (Law and Order) Mukul Goel, who visited the spot, said the arrested assailant has been identified as Hemendra Sharma of Agra. He identified the other assailant as Sahil, a Nepalese national.

Goel said the assailants were followers of Sant Gyan-eshwar who was murdered in Handia near Allahabad in 2006, and the two brothers were named in that case. They, however, were acquitted in 2010. The ADG said initial probe reveals the assailants wanted to avenge the killing of Gyaneshwar.

Lucknow Zone IG Subhash Chandra said Gyaneshwar, a controversial godman, was an accused in the murder of Monu’s father Indrabhadra Singh. However, Monu, in his complaint to the police, has accused a BSP leader from Sultanpur, Vinod Kumar Singh, of plotting the attack. He also accused Kamla Devi, the wife of slain revenue clerk Ram Kumar Yadav, of aiding the assailants. Monu’s lawyer V K Tiwari said the number of assailants was more than half-a-dozen and they escaped after the attack. The IG said they have received Monu’s complaint but the investigation till now indicates a conspiracy to avenge Gyaneshwar’s murder.

Chandra also said the crude bombs were made by filling explosives in the small tin boxes used fro packing tobacco products. He said two bombs exploded while three live bombs were disposed of by a bomb disposal squad.