2 accused in journalist Raghvendra Bajpai’s murder killed in encounter

Two brothers wanted in the murder of a journalist, among other crimes, were killed in an encounter with a joint team of the Special Task Force (STF) and the local police here on Thursday, officials said.

However, the late journalist’s wife slammed the encounter and called for a CBI probe into the matter. “We are dissatisfied with today’s encounter and the work done by the police. Everything revealed by the police was fabricated; we have never been satisfied with it,” she said.

Police received Intelligence inputs suggesting the two criminals, wanted in the murder case of journalist Raghvendra Bajpai, were planning to cross the Hardoi-Sitapur border, Superintendent of Police (SP) Ankur Agarwal said in a statement.

Acting on the tip-off, a joint team of the STF and the Sitapur Police launched operations in the Pisawan Police Station area and spotted the two accused, Raju Tiwari alias Rizwan Khan and Sanjay Tiwari alias Aqueel Khan, on a motorcycle, the officer noted.

When asked to stop, the duo allegedly opened fire at the police team. In retaliatory firing, the two were killed, Additional Director General (Law and Order) Amitabh Yash said.

Earlier, a reward of Rs 1 lakh each had been announced for their arrests. Bajpai (36), a resident of Vikasnagar in the Maholi area, was shot dead on March 8 near the Hempur railway overbridge on the Lucknow-Delhi National Highway while he was heading to Sitapur on a motorcycle.

Listing the history of the criminals, the police said that Raju killed Sub-Inspector Parvez Ali in Lakhimpur in 2006 and looted his service pistol. Sanjay killed a woman in Sitapur in 2011.

Expressing dissatisfaction over the encounter, Bajpai’s wife Rashmi Bajpai said, “We have been demanding a CBI inquiry from the beginning, but it has not been undertaken as it would have revealed the identities of those involved in my husband’s murder. We received no information about the encounter that occurred today. This is how justice is served.”

Rashmi asserted that she will go to Delhi to demand a CBI inquiry into the matter.