LUCKNOW: The two persons – Sachin and Shubham – arrested by the UP police in connection with an attack on the convoy of AIMIM chief Assaduddin Owaisi near Chhajrasi toll plaza on Delhi-Meerut Expressway, on Thursday, were sent to jail under 14-day judicial remand after being produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Meerut on Friday.
An FIR was also lodged and the two accused were booked under Section 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC in connection with the attack case.
One of the two accused Sachin Pundit has claimed to be a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party as he has put up the membership slip of the BJP on social media.
In the slip, his name is written as ‘Deshbhakt Sachin Hindu’. He has also shared his pictures with BJP leaders, including UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, MP Mahesh Sharma.
Sachin, an LLM degree holder, lives with his family in Durai village in Badalpur in Noida. However, the cops are verifying his educational credentials. As per the police sources, Sachin's father, Vinod Pandit, works for private companies on contract. Cops found that a case of attempt to murder was lodged against Sachin earlier also.
Vinod Pandit, Sachin’s father, said that he used to provide labourers to 20-25 private companies on contract and Sachin used to work with him. His father shared that Sachin had left home at around 8 am on the fateful day saying he was going to discuss something with the management of one of the companies. He had been a little upset for the past two to three days.
On the other, the second accused, Shubham, is a resident of Saharanpur. His parents are no more. A Class 10 pass out, Shubham comes from a farmer family, said the Saharanpur police authorities. Shubham has no criminal case against him so far. “Shubham has no criminal history in Saharanpur. He doesn’t visit his ancestral home frequently. He mostly lives in Modipuram area of Ghaziabad,” said Saharanpur SP, Rural, Atul Sharma.
According to ADG (L&O) Prashant Kumar, the accused have shared with the cops that they were hurt by the “provocative” statements of the Lok Sabha MP Owaisi and his party members because of which they planned the attack.
During interrogation, they said that both of them were miffed with the statements of Owaisi and his brother Akbaruddin Owaisi. They watched videos of Owaisi's speeches on Facebook and Twitter. The ADG said that the two claimed that they were offended by the remarks of the Lok Sabha MP regarding a particular community and also Ayodhya temple and Ram Janmabhoomi issue.
When they learnt that Owaisi would be participating in public rallies in Meerut and Kithore, they decided to follow him, said the police sources. Country-made pistols were recovered from the two. After being arrested and questioned, they disclosed the names of two other persons, and efforts are on to nab them, police said.