BJP leader's wife killed as villagers clash with police in Uttarakhand

Dehradun, October 13

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Wife of a local BJP leader was killed and five others injured when residents of an Uttarakhand village clashed with an UP Police team that had arrived there to arrest a man accused of illegal sand mining, an official said.

Four of the injured were personnel of UP Police, two of them with gunshot wounds, the police said.

The clash on Wednesday night took place at Bharatpur village near Kashipur in Uttarakhand’s Udham Singh Nagar district. The policemen had come from adjacent Moradabad district looking for Jafar, alleged to be a member of a mining mafia.

Acting on a tip-off, a team of Thakurdwara police station in Moradabad reached Bharatpur to raid the house of BJP leader and Jaspur senior block pramukh Gurtaj Bhullar in search of Jafar, the UP Police said.

When they reached Bhullar’s house, an argument broke out. Both sides allegedly resorted to firing in which Bhullar’s wife Gurpreet, who was returning home from work, was killed.

Udham Singh Nagar SSP Manjunath TC said the UP Police team did not inform their Uttarakhand counterparts about the action in advance.

Following the incident, angry villagers blocked the highway in protest. Kashipur MLA Trilok Singh Cheema, Gadarpur MLA Arvind Pandey and former MP Balraj Passi joined the protesters.

The blockade was lifted at 11 pm after persuasion by the district police.