Assailants open fire, toss grenade at BJP lawmaker's Uttar Pradesh home

New Delhi, Sep 27: Unidentified miscreants opened fire and threw a hand grenade on BJP lawmaker Sangeet Som's residence in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut, in the early hours of Thursday, police said. The Member of Legislative Assembly or MLA is accused of inciting violence and riots in 2013's Muzaffarnagar riots case.

Nobody was injured in the attack that took place at around 1 am on the Sardhana lawmaker's residence in Meerut's Lalkurti area, they said, adding that five policemen were suspended in this connection.

Senior Superintendent of Police (Meerut) Akhilesh Kumar told PTI that five police personnel deployed in the security detail of the BJP lawmaker, a Z-category protectee, have been suspended for alleged dereliction of duty and not taking retaliatory action during the attack. These include head constable Satbir Singh and constables Satyendra Singh, Sanjeev Bharti, Surjit Singh and Manish Kumar, he added.

Officials said the miscreants arrived minutes after the lawmaker had returned, opened fire at the house and threw a grenade before fleeing, officials said. The hand grenade, however, did not go off, they added.

The identity of the accused and the reason behind the attack were unknown, SSP Kumar said, adding that an investigation was launched in this connection.

"The residence of MLA Sangeet Som was attacked by unidentified miscreants. They came in a car and opened fire on the house. They hurled a grenade before fleeing, which has been found. The unpinned grenade has been found and it appears to be old. A team of experts is conducting an investigation," he said.

The police official said preliminary investigation did not suggest that it was an act of terror.

Soon after the attack, SSP Kumar, SSP Satpal, Superintendent of Police (City) Ranvijya Singh, Intelligence Bureau officials, bomb disposal squad and other top officials of the administration and the police reached the spot and conducted preliminary inquiry.

Asked about the attack, Som said he had no idea who was behind it. "Neither did I receive any threat nor had any dispute with anyone in the recent times," he said.

PTI