Police on Friday decided to invoke the provisions of the National Security Act and the Gangster Act on Bahujan Samaj Party legislator Shekhar Tiwari and others accused in connection with the murder of a senior government engineer Manoj Kumar Gupta in Auraiya in Uttar Pradesh.
District Magistrate Shashikant Sharma said the government has directed the district administration to take strict action against all the accused irrespective of their status.
The provisions of these two Acts besides that of the Indian Penal Code would also be applied on the other three accused -- Vinay Tiwari, Manoj Awasti and Puti alias Ram Babu -- who have also been arrested, he said.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati had on Thursday declared that government would take strict action Tiwari and others accused in the murder.
Invoking of the provisions of the two tough laws may deny the accused the liberty of bail for a prolonged period.
IG (Kanpur Zone) Bhanu Pratap Singh said that NSA was being invoked since murder had led to disruption of public life and damage to property.
Police would seek custody of Tiwari and three others for a week for investigations, he said.
Efforts are also on to nab two others Bhatia and Tiwari, whose names have also cropped up in the murder, Sharma said.
The district magistrate said investigations so far have established the involvement of these accused in the murder of Gupta, an executive engineer with the Public Works Department.
Gupta, who is believed to have refused to pay a huge sum to Tiwari for the birthday celebrations of Mayawati in January, was severely beaten up allegedly by Tiwari and his men at the dead of night in his residence. He was declared dead in the hospital after Tiwari took him to the local police station and left him there.
Additional SP Soreshwar Mishra has been entrusted with the investigations in the case. Nachiketa Jha has taken over as Superintendent of Police in place of Akramul Haq, who has been transferred in the wake of the murder.
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