Prime accused in Meher Bhargava case still untraced

Lucknow, Mar 30 (UNI) Lucknow police, already under tremendous public pressure over Meher Bhargava murder, has been unable to trace the prime accused in the case- Sachin Pahadi who was shot at by the police here yesterday but managed to escape.

Police had launched a massive manhunt in his search but was not successful so far. He was injured in a police encounter in crowded Kaiserbagh area of the state capital.

All the hotels, hospitals and nursing homes are under police scanner but the efforts did not yield any results as yet.

''We have tightened security and it was almost impossible for Sachin Pahadi to escape away,''Senior Suprintendent of Police (SSP), Lucknow Asutosh Pandey told UNI.

State capital police which is under fire from all quarters over its inability to nab the killers of Meher Bhargava even after one month of the incident, is also finding it difficult to sell its encounter theory while evading several queries in this regard.

Meanwhile, claiming to have achieved a breakthrough in a police sub-inspector's murder case more than a month ago in Rajajipuram area of the capital, the SSP said it was executed by Sunny Rawat,one of the prime arrests in Meher Bhargava case. Sunny was arrested from the state capital yesterday and besides being interrogated in Meher case was also found to be directly involved in ISI murder case.

Bhargava was shot by miscreants in the busy Hazratganj area -- barely few yards away from the SSP residence -- when she objected to lewd remarks passed on her daughter-in-law on February 28.

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

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

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