Teotia attack kingpin held

Noida: The main accused in BJP leader

Brijpal Teotia

’s murder case, Manish, was arrested on Tuesday. The UP special task force (STF) confirmed that Teotia was fired upon using the weapons belonging to slain gangster Rakesh Hasanpuriya’s gang.

The UP STF said that the motive behind the murder was that Manish wanted to avenge the death of his father, Suresh Diwan, by killing Teotia.

Teotia, whose family belongs to Mehruali village off NH-24, once used to work as a constable with Delhi Police. However, Teotia's career veered towards politics after the murder case of another Delhi police constable, Suresh Diwan, on June 11, 1996. Teotia was widely perceived to have had a hand in Diwan’s murder.

On Tuesday, the Noida unit of UP STF, along with the Ghaziabad police, arrested the main accused, Manish, who had a reward of Rs 15,000 on his head, in Muradnagar. Carbine — which was used in the attack on Teotia on August 12 — was recovered from his possession.

SP (STF) Himanshu Kumar said that during interrogation, Manish admitted to having arranged the weapons with the help of one Manoj and his brother-in-law Sansaar Singh, co-accused in the case. According to the team, the weapons, which were always with Suresh Diwan’s family, were assembled to kill Teotia after the plan was hatched by Manish around four months ago.

“Since April, Manoj and his accomplices were trying to attack Teotia. In June-July, they made two unsuccessful attempts. At the end, on August 11 evening, seven assailants indiscriminately fired on Teotia’s car,” Kumar said.

Manish was on the run and kept travelling to Etawa, Muzaffarnagar, Dehradun, Jhansi and Madhya Pradesh since the day of the incident.

According to the STF team, Manish tried to surrender at the Ghaziabad court twice in between but due to the heavy police presence, he was unable to do so.