CBI court awards life term to eight accused
Over seven years after the sensational murder of Sarwan Sahu here, the special CBI court on Thursday awarded life sentence to eight accused in the murder case. The CBI court also imposed a total fine of Rs 11 lakh on them.
Sahu, then 58, was shot dead in his shop outside his house in crowded residential Saadatganj locality in the state capital on February 1, 2017.
Those awarded life term are Satyam Patel, Aman Singh, Aqeel Ansari, Vivek Varma, Babu Khan, Faisal, Ajay Patel and Rohit Mishra.
Sahu was fighting the murder case of his 27-year-old son Ayush Sahu, who was shot dead by a local gangster Aqeel Ansari after a brawl outside a beer shop on Campbell Road under Thakurganj police station on October 16, 2013.
Ansari was a close associate of the late gangster Mukhtar Ansari. Four days before Sarwan Sahu’s murder, Ansari had surrendered in court in the Ayush murder case and was sent to jail.
Sarwan Sahu was shot dead by two motorcycle-borne assailants while he was sitting at his oil shop at around 8.30pm.
The incident had exposed negligence by cops as Sahu was not provided any police security despite being the key witness in the murder of his son.
He had made several complaints to the police of life threat from dreaded criminal Aqeel Ansari, the prime accused in Ayush’s murder.
Threat perception to Sahu could be gauged from the fact that Ansari had once tried to get him eliminated with help of contract killers while being in jail.
However, the attempt was foiled as the UP Special Task Force (STF) had arrested the four contract killers in Saadatganj on February 28, 2016.
Thereafter, Ansari had framed Sahu in an alleged fake contract killing case with the help of some police personnel.
After this fake case against Sahu came to light, three police personnel, including a sub-inspector of the crime branch Dhirendra Shukla and constables Dhirendra Yadav and Anil Singh, were terminated.
These three cops were accused of hatching the conspiracy against Sahu. Also, five other constables were suspended and departmental action was ordered against an inspector and five other sub-inspectors.
Moreover, five separate FIRs were lodged against Ansari and the police personnel for hatching a conspiracy to frame Sahu in the fake case.
On January 10, 2017, crime branch sleuths arrested four youths in Para area claiming that Sahu had given them a contract of ₹20 lakh to eliminate Ansari.
On the basis of police claims, Ansari had lodged an FIR against Sahu for hatching a murder conspiracy against him in Thakurganj police station.
However, after a police probe this came out to be a conspiracy by Ansari to frame Sahu. Dhirendra Shukla and other policemen involved in this case had framed four innocent youths of Para area, including Kamran, Afzal, Tamim and Anwar, in this case and had sent them to jail.
Case handed over to CBI after HC order
The murder case was handed over to the CBI following orders of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on March 21, 2017 on a PIL petition demanding a CBI probe in the case.
Probe gave clean chit to ex-SSP
A probe panel constituted by the state government had given a clean chit to former Lucknow SSP Manzil Saini in connection with the allegations of negligence in the Sarwan Sahu murder case.
Saini, who was the first woman SSP of Lucknow, was accused of not providing police security to Sarwan Sahu despite life threat to him.
3 cops were sacked for conspiracy against Sahu
Crime branch SI Dhirendra Shukla besides two constables Dhirendra Yadav and Anil Singh were terminated from service on charges of hatching a conspiracy to frame Sarwan Sahu in a fake case in connivance with Aqeel Ansari.
An FIR was lodged against 14 policemen, including Dhirendra Shukla, on January 19, 2017, in this case.
SAHU WAS FIGHTING THE MURDER CASE OF HIS 27-YEAR-OLD SON, WHO WAS SHOT BY LOCAL GANGSTER AQEEL ANSARI. SAHU WAS SHOT DEAD BY TWO BIKE-BORNE ASSAILANTS WHILE HE WAS SITTING AT HIS SHOP