Lucknow: First wife among 3 named in railway contractor's murder

LUCKNOW: A day after three masked miscreants shot dead a bed-ridden railway contractor Virendra Thakur at his house after locking his second wife and minor sons in a room in the Cantonment, Lucknow police lodged a case of murder, illegal detention and house trespass against Thakur's first wife Priyanka, her present husband Bittu Jaiswal and one Firdaus, who was earlier chargesheeted in another attack on Thakur in 2019.
The FIR has been lodged on the complaint of Kushboo, victim's second wife.
Police said that Firdaus was chargesheeted in a case involving attack on Virendra in Charbagh in 2019 while Bittu Jaiswal is also a railway contractor in Bihar with whom his first wife Priyanka married in 2020.
ADCP, East Zone, Qasim Abidi said that two separate teams have been formed and one sent to Bettiah in West Champaran district of Bihar and another to Shahjahanpur.
"The team in Bettiah area of West Champaran, will find out about accused Firdaus, Bittu Jaiswal and his wife Priyanka, while in Shahjahanpur the three private guards who had fled during the attack will be searched," said Abidi.
Police is also tracing identity of the shooters who had come to kill Virendra, while as many as four cases, including one of attempt to murder, has been found to be lodged against Firdaus in Gudumba police station.
On the other hand, sources privy to the probe indicate that the murder was the fallout of gang rivalry of Bihar. Sources said that Bittu Jaiswal and Firdaus are the aides of Vinay Sharma's gang, whose rival was Virendra.
"We have learnt from Bihar police that Vinay Sharma was also killed in December 2021 after he came out of Buxar jail, due to internal gang dissent, a probe into which is pending, while it has also surfaced that Virendra had a role in it, as he had wanted to gain supremacy in the gang and then become its leader," said a police source.
Sources also claimed that in 2019, when Virendra Thakur was attacked it was done by Firdaus at the behest of Vinay Sharma.
A senior officer said that in all likelihood it seems to be a gang rivalry.