Man shot dead over debate on Covid-19 in Prayagraj

PRAYAGRAJ: A 30-year-old man identified as Lotan Nishad was allegedly shot dead by two miscreants outside his house at Bakshi Moda village under the jurisdiction of Kareli police station of UP's Prayagraj district here on Sunday morning.
Heavy police presence in the area to maintain law and order following the incident.
Initial police investigations revealed that a debate over Covid-19 outbreak has led to the incident.
A group of locals caught one of the accused while making an abortive bid to escape from the spot and handed him over to the police after thrashing him.
The accused has been identified as Mohammad Sona alias Sonu, a resident of Bakshi Moda village.
Upon being alerted, senior police authorities including SSP (Prayagraj) Satyarth Anirudh Pankaj and SP (City) Brijesh Kumar Srivastava along with forces rushed to the spot and carried out investigations.
While talking to TOI SSP said, "As per the preliminary investigations, a group of persons who were sitting at the main gate of victim's house had involved themselves in heated arguments over the spread of Covid-19 while reading the newspaper and the scene took an ugly turn when two of the men from a community allegedly shot dead one of the members of another community."
He, however, said police have been making thorough investigations into the incident. The family members have not submitted any application till now.