Reward of Rs 50,000 put on Pahari, test identification parade held

Lucknow, Apr 5 (UNI) The Uttar Pradesh police today increased to Rs 50,000, the reward on the arrest of Sachin Pahari, prime accused in the high profile Meher Bhargava murder case and also conducted a test identification parade at the district jail to trace out the killer.

State Principal Secretary (Home) S K Agrawal said here today that Pahari, the prime accused in the February 28 last killing of Congress leader Luv Bhargava's wife, was still absconding and the police had now raised the bounty on his arrest to Rs 50,000 from Rs 37,500.

Mr Agrawal said special police team has been constituted to nab Pahari, who managed to escape following a police encounter recently in the Kaisarbag area here.

Senior Police Superintendent Ashutosh Pandey said that the special police team was on a lookout for Pahari, and had also visited Pahari's native place in Pithauragarh district of Uttaranchal.

Meanwhile, a test identification parade was conducted at the district jail here to identify the the real killer from the five persons arrested in connection with the case. The witness to the case were present at the parade alongwith investigating officer D K Rai. Further details were awaited.

One of the five arrested, Sunny Rawat had recently confessed before the media that he had pulled the trigger of Meher Bhargava on February 28, but later made a volte face saying that he had made the statement under duress from police.

The Bhargava household and the driver of the Bhargava's Ganga Prasad, who was present at the time of the crime had earlier identified Sunny as the man who pulled the trigger on Ms Bhargava.

UNI ARS ST PA BS2214