Meher's killer sent to judicial custody

Lucknow, Mar 30 (UNI) A local court here remanded Sunny Rawat, who confessed shooting Meher Bhargava, to 14 days' judicial custody.

Rawat, who made his confession before media at the residence of SSP (Lucknow) Ashutosh Pandey this afternoon, was arrested by the city police yesterday.

The accused told reporters it was he who pulled the trigger on Meher, who died in a Delhi hospital a month later.

Yesterday, he had claimed before the media that although he was present at the time of crime, it was Sachin alias Amit Singh, who shot Meher for challenging them after they had passed lewd remarks on her daughter-in-law.

Last evening, the Bhargavas too maintained that Rawat had shot her. Police had taken Rawat to the Bhargava household for a test identification parade.

The police till this morning, had maintained that Pahari had shot Meher. Pahari was shot at in an encounter in the Kaiserbagh area here last afternoon at 1430 hrs. But, he managed to escape.

Meanwhile, the city police, already under tremendous public pressure over Meher murder case, has been unable to trace the prime accused in the case. All hotels, hospitals and nursing homes are under police surveillance.

''We have tightened security and it is almost impossible for Pahari to escape for long,'' the SSP told UNI.

Police, which is under fire from all quarters over its inability to nab the killers of Meher even after a month of the incident, is finding it difficult to sell its yesterday's encounter story and evading several queries in this regard.

Meanwhile, the SSP, who claimed to have achieved a breakthrough in a police sub-inspector's murder case more than a month ago in Rajajipuram area of the capital, said it was executed by Rawat.

Besides being interrogated in the Meher case, he was also found to be directly involved in the policemen's murder.

Meher was shot by miscreants in the busy Hazratganj area -- barely few yards away from the SSP residence on February 28 last.

She was partially paralysed following the bullet wound and breathed last at a hospital in the national capital.

Various social groups and women organisations organised protests against the killing while the Congress party has been extremely aggressive while alleging political patronage to the culprits.

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