A key government witness in the Asaram case succumbed to bullet injuries in a private hospital in the Bareilly district late on Saturday night.

The deceased, Kripal Singh, a native of Shahjahanpur district was shot at by unknown miscreants in the Puwanwa locality in Shahjahanpur late on Friday evening.

Singh received a gun shot in his back and was rushed to Bareilly in a critical situation.

"We conducted a couple of operations to stop the excessive bleeding and because of the bleeding his lower portion of the body paralysed. He was on ventilator and did not recovered", a doctor informed.

"Earlier we registered a case under section 307 (attempt to murder) against unknown miscreants and now it will be converted to 302 (murder). We are hunting for the criminals", SSP Shahjahanpur Babloo Kumar said.

It is to be mentioned that another government witness Akhil Kumar Gupta who was a cook of Asaram was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in the Muzaffarnagar district earlier this January.