Uttarakhand: BJP leader's wife killed in crossfire between cops and mining mafia

Dehradun, Oct 13: The wife of a BJP leader was killed in crossfire when the Uttar Pradesh Police was carrying out a raid to capture a mining mafia in Uttarakhand. Besides the leader's wife, two cops also died during the incident.

In the incident, five cops were injured along with the wife of the BJP leader when the exchange of fire broke out between the police personnel and the mining mafia's aides.

The deceased, identified as Gurpreet Kaur, is the wife of BJP leader Gurtaj Bhullar. Two cops died while three injured in the incident.

The Moradabad Police team had reached Uttarakhand's Jaspur to arrest mining mafia named Zafar, who was reportedly hiding at Bhullar's house.

The accused carried a reward of Rs 50,000, the cops said.

"The accused is a wanted criminal carrying a reward of ₹ 50,000. He escaped from there (Bharatpur village). When our police team reached, they were taken hostage and their weapons were snatched," Moradabad senior cop Shalabh Mathur said, as quoted by news agency ANI.

Later, the angry villagers beat up the cops and held them hostage.

Meanwhile, the husband of the victim and the BJP leader has demanded a CBI probe into the issue. "We want a CBI enquiry to get justice for my wife. We did not use any weapons or fire. Instead, we handed them over to the police," he told India Today.

"It was a bigger conspiracy. It is a conspiracy of those men who came to attack us," he said, while stating that the perpetrators of the crime were not injured and that they had fled from Kashipur Hospital.