UP: Ex-BSP leader who gifted Mayawati plot on Moon in 2010 shot dead

KANPUR: Former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Narendra Singh alias Pintu Sengar was shot dead in Kanpur on Saturday afternoon. Sengar had made headlines in 2010 when he gifted a 3-acre plot on the Moon to then UP chief minister Mayawati on her birthday.
Police said Sengar was passing through JK Ashiana Colony in Chakeri, Jajmau when four unidentified assailants on two motorcycles fired indiscriminately at him.He suffered at least six gunshot wounds and was rushed to a private hospital where doctors pronounced him brought dead on arrival. The assailants managed to flee unchallenged.
Sengar, who was a resident of Chakeri’s Mangla Vihar, had earlier held a post in BSP. He had also unsuccessfully contested assembly election from Cantt area of the city in 2007. His mother Shanti Devi is a zila panchayat member from Kathethi area of Gajner in Kanpur Dehat, while his father Sone Singh is head of Gogemau village in Kanpur Dehat.
Sources said Sengar was also into property business.
Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Dinesh Kumar P, along with forensic experts, reached the spot soon after getting information and all entry and exit points of the city were sealed. Police said 11 spent cartridges were recovered from the crime scene.
“The four assailants wearing helmet and riding on two motorcycles shot Sengar when he was alighting his Innova driven by his driver Rupesh. Before anyone could realize, the assailants fled. We have accessed CCTV footages from the area. We are also working on some leads provided by his kin about his rivals who had perpetrated murderous attack on him earlier in 2017 in which he was seriously injured,” police added.
Sengar had shot into limelight when he had gifted a 3-acre plot on the Moon to Mayawati on her 54th birthday in 2010. He had then told the media that he purchased the lunar plot from US-based Lunar Republic Society. “The society openly sells plots on the moon,” Sengar had claimed and showed the registration papers signed by its member-secretary Margaret Hayes Barton. The move, however, had resulted in his ouster from the party.