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Lucknow: The suspected assassin of a Hindu Right-wing leader based in Lucknow was shot at in an encounter with police in the Uttar Pradesh capital Friday evening. The man, identified only as Jitendra, is currently under treatment in hospital.

According to police sources, Jitendra was shot at after he opened fire during a chase.

The encounter came a day after police claimed to have cracked the murder of Ranjeet Bachchan, who headed a fringe outfit known as Vishwa Hindu Mahasabha, with the arrest of his second wife, her suspected lover and a third person.

According to police, Bachchan’s wife Smriti Srivastava has confessed to the murder. Bachchan was allegedly stalling their divorce, they said, and she was eager to marry her “lover” Deependra Varma. In her statement to police, Srivastava also allegedly accused Bachchan of domestic violence, saying Varma resolved to murder Bachchan after an assault last month.

Out for a morning walk with a cousin on 2 February, Bachchan was shot in the head in Lucknow’s Hazratganj area.

The arrest of Srivastava, Varma and suspected accomplice Sanjeet Gautam, who allegedly drove the shooter and Varma to the crime scene, was announced by Lucknow police commissioner Sujit Pandey Thursday.

Deputy commissioner of police (central Lucknow) Dinesh Singh told ThePrint that the accused were arrested after an analysis of Srivastava’s call detail records revealed she had been in touch with Varma.

Another lead, he added, came as Varma’s face was identified on CCTV footage from the vicinity of the crime spot.

While Srivastava was arrested from her home in Lucknow’s Vikasnagar area, Varma was arrested by Uttar Pradesh Police from Mumbai. Gautam was arrested from Lucknow.

Also read: The story of how angry karsevak Kamlesh Tiwari rose to become a Hindu leader

Smriti was Bachchan’s second wife

Police said Srivastava was Bachchan’s second wife. He had allegedly married her without terminating his first marriage with a woman named Kalindi Sharma.

Bachchan and Srivastava, police said, came into contact in 2014, and got married the same year. Relations between the two, however, soured when Srivastava came to know about his first marriage about a year after their wedding, they added.

According to police, Srivastava described Bachchan as a violent man who would regularly beat her up. She came into contact with Varma, they said, around two years ago. The plot to kill Bachchan was allegedly hatched after Varma heard about an assault on Srivastava last month.

“On 17 January, Bachchan and Srivastava met at the Sikandarabad intersection in Lucknow to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Bachchan asked Srivastava to accompany him to a hotel but she refused. It was then that he slapped her. When Varma came to know about this, he became enraged and hatched a plot to kill Bachchan,” said police commissioner Pandey.

Three rounds of recce at Bachchan’s house

Deputy commissioner Singh said Varma came to Lucknow from Mumbai on 29 January, along with shooter Jitendra. The duo stayed at a hotel in Lucknow and conducted three rounds of recce near Bachchan’s house in the city, he added.

According to police, on the morning of 2 February, Varma and Jitendra left the hotel in a car driven by Gautam. While Varma got down near the Hazratganj intersection, Jitendra stationed himself on the route that Bachchan used to take for his morning walk.

Jitendra allegedly shot Bachchan in the head when the latter was walking towards the Central Drug Research Institute after crossing the Old Counsellors’ Residence, said police.

After carrying out the murder, Varma and Jitendra left for Rae Bareli with Gautam, police added. Varma is then believed to have gone to Mumbai.

Bachchan is a former member of the Samajwadi Party who joined the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, another fringe outfit, in 2017. He later launched the Vishwa Hindu Mahasabha and was operating it from the OCR building. Police also said that the Vishwa Hindu Mahasabha was not registered.

Also read: No more riots. In Modi and Amit Shah’s new India shooters are becoming the norm

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