Shakeel in police custody
Prayagraj : Kaushambi police on Friday arrested Shakeel, brother of the prime accused already in custody, from the Pipri area in connection with the firecracker unit explosion that recently killed 14 people. They were booked under Sections 105 and 288 of BNS and Sections 4,5 and 9B of Explosives Act. IG (Prayagraj Range) Ajay Kumar Mishra had on Thursday night increased the cash reward from Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000 on Shakeel, who had been evading police action since the blast. On Thursday, acting on a tip-off about the movement of accused Adil , who carried a reward of Rs 25,000, police cornered him near Canal Road and ordered him to surrender. His mother and another absconding accused, Kahkasha, who carried a Rs 25,000 bounty, were arrested in a separate raid in Kaushambi’s Pipri area on Thursday evening.
A joint police-administration team also demolished Shakeel’s two-storey house-cum-godown at Mahmoodpur in Manauri amid tight security. With the arrest of Shakeel, cops claimed to have arrested all six persons named in the FIR. Following Shakeel’s arrest, the joint team of police and administration, after carrying out investigations and compiling the required documentation, took up the demolition of his house at Mahmoodpur. The team demolished the two-storey house-cum-godown and seized a generator and lights. The joint team has bullzoed at least eight properties of the accused and their relativs so far. Adil allegedly opened fire at the police team and sustained bullet wounds in both legs in the retaliatory firing. Police seized a country-made pistol from his possession.