Mukhtar Ansari’s aide killed in Lucknow court by man dressed as lawyer

At about 3.30 pm, when Maheshwari was about to enter the courtroom, the assailant — who was dressed as a lawyer — opened fire from behind, said police. As soon as the firing started, Maheshwari tried to run inside the courtroom, but fell on the ground.

The assailant was then nabbed by the lawyers present at the spot. He was beaten up before he was handed over to the police.

An 18-month-old baby, who had come to the court with her parents, was also injured. The child’s mother also suffered minor injuries, and both are said to be stable. Two Head Constables, Kamlesh and Lal Mohammad, who were injured in the shooting, have been admitted to a hospital.

Preliminary police investigations point to only one attacker, said Agarwal. “The investigation will make it clear how many assailants were there,” he said.

The assailant, Vijay Yadav, who is undergoing treatment at a hospital, has two cases against him, including a case of kidnapping a minor. He was out on bail.

“Things will get clearer after questioning him (the accused),” said Special Director General of Police (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar.

The state government has set up a three-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) under Additional Director General (Technical Services) Mohit Agarwal to probe the incident. The SIT has also been asked to look into the security lapses inside the court premises and submit its report in a week. Two other members of the SIT are Joint Commissioner of Police (Lucknow) Nilabja Choudhary and Inspector General (Ayodhya Range) Praveen Kumar.

Maheshwari, a resident of Shamli, was in jail since 2003 when a CBI court sentenced him and former MLA Vijay Singh in the murder of senior BJP leader and MLA Brahm Dutt Dwivedi. Dwivedi was killed in Farrukhabad district in February 1997. In 2017, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court upheld the trial court order.

Maheshwari was named in multiple cases, including the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai in Ghazipur district in 2005, in which he was an accused along with Mukhtar Ansari and his brother Afzal Ansari. In 2019, a court acquitted all the accused in the case as all eyewitnesses and material witnesses turned hostile.

Maheshwari, a gang leader, was named in 24 cases. He had been acquitted in 17. The cases, lodged in Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Ghazipur, Farrukhabad, and Haridwar, include charges of murder, kidnapping, and extortion.

Police claimed to have seized Maheshwari’s properties worth Rs 4 crore under the UP Gangsters Act.

Meanwhile, Special DGP Prashant Kumar has directed all district police chiefs and police commissioners to look into the security of their respective district courts. They have also been directed to also check the security of prisoners brought to court and collect information from local intelligence.