Lucknow:

Notorious gangster Sundar Bhati, serving a life sentence for the murder of Samajwadi Party leader Harendra Nagar and his gunner Bhudev Sharma, has been granted bail by the Allahabad High Court and has gone underground since then.

Following his release from Sonbhadra jail, sources report that Bhati quietly boarded a flight from Varanasi to Delhi. He is believed to have since gone into hiding in Haryana, with a Special Task Force (STF) team from western Uttar Pradesh closely monitoring his movements, sources said on Saturday.

Bhati, regarded as one of the most influential gangsters in western Uttar Pradesh, is from Ghanghola village in Gautam Buddh Nagar district and has more than 60 cases of murder, attempted murder, extortion, robbery, and assault registered against him.

Before his detention in Sonbhadra, Bhati was held at Hamirpur jail, where he reportedly established contact with Sunny, one of three gunmen accused in the murder of gangster Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf in Prayagraj in April 2023. Bhati is said to have recruited Sunny into his network.

With this connection, Bhati’s name has surfaced in investigations related to the Atiq-Ashraf case. Some reports suggest that Bhati facilitated the supply of Zigana pistols, a foreign semi-automatic firearm manufactured in Turkey, to the shooters involved.

Following Sunny’s release from Hamirpur jail, he reportedly stayed in contact with Bhati’s associates, ultimately obtaining a Zigana pistol through Bhati’s network.

The gang leader’s influence has reportedly grown following the encounter killing of his rival Anil Dujana in May 2023, just a month after the Atiq-Ashraf murder case.

With Dujana’s death, Bhati is believed to have attempted to expand his control over the scrap business in western Uttar Pradesh.

In 2015, Bhati and his associates fatally shot SP leader Harendra Nagar and his gunner during a wedding event in Greater Noida.

In 2021, Bhati, along with 11 of his accomplices, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

A lawyer was shot dead at his office in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad on Wednesday. The lawyer – Monu Chaudhary – was in his chambers, which is inside the district court complex, and eating when two men burst in and opened fire. Mr Chaudhary’s blood-covered body was found slumped in the chair.

A case was filed with the Sihani Gate Police Station and the investigation is ongoing, as part of which a forensic team gathered evidence and the body has been sent for post-mortem.

In addition, security footage from CCTV cameras installed across the court premises are being secured, Nipun Agarwal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (City), told NDTV.

Preliminary information indicates Mr Chaudhary was shot dead at 2 pm. The attackers reportedly arrived on foot and fled after committing the crime

The killing comes as legal practitioners across western UP went on a 24-hour strike today to protest the clash between lawyers and police in the state’s Hapur region. In anticipation of further clashes police had been deployed at all court and tehsil complexes in the state.

However, the fact that armed men broke through this security cordon, murdered Mr Chaudhary and then escaped has led to questions being asked of the police.

After news of the gruesome murder, scores of lawyers gathered around the crime scene and soon protests broke out as Mr Chaudhary’s colleagues demanded justice. At the time of the attack other lawyers were meeting to chalk out their strategy on the Hapur issue.

Hapur Lawyers Protest

On Tuesday the Hapur Bar Association staged a protest over an allegedly false case against a lawyer and her father. Tensions escalated as police resorted to lathi-charge against lawyers.

The Supreme Court Bar Association hit out at the police action and said advocates protesting peacefully against the alleged high-handedness of the police was a violation of their rights.

With input from PTI