College student shot dead in Varanasi, UP Police forms 7 teams to crack case

A college student was shot dead by some unidentified men outside his college in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi. The incident took place last night. The victim has been identified as Vivek Singh. He was said to be the second year student of Bachelor of Commerce at Udai Pratap College. The city police have formed seven teams to crack the case. A police officer said that, "It seems to be a case of an old dispute. 7 teams have been dispatched to look for accused and suspect. Investigation is underway. Situation is under control."

The crime in the city will attract more scrutiny as it happens to be the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In fact, the crime rate in the state has been a cause of worry for Yogi Adityanath government. As per statistics available, the state has reported the highest number of communal incidents for three years. While 155 incidents took place in 2015, the number was 162 the following year. Things got worse in 2017 when 195 incidents were recorded.

According to MHA data, UP's Bareilly recorded the highest number of custodial death at 25, followed by Agra (21) and Allahabad (19). UP is followed by West Bengal with 127 deaths, Punjab and Maharashtra tied for the 3rd place with 118 deaths in judicial custody. Other states that follow are Madhya Pradesh with 107 and Bihar with 102. Jammu and Kashmir which witnesses the highest number of encounters notched four custodial deaths.

Last year, there was lot of uproar after Vivke Tiwari, an Apple manager was allegedly shot dead by constables in Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar locality. A fired bullet pierced the windscreen as the car rammed into a pillar, police had said. The autopsy report had later confirmed the death was caused by gunshot injuries. UP Congress chief Raj Babbar also visited the victim's house and had slammed the Yogi government. "You (CM) might be busy in political management of the incident otherwise you should have come to meet daughters of the victim."

(With inputs from PTI)