Shootout in two UP courts, five dead

Even before the buzz over violence in the Chennai court could die down, two courts in UP echoed with gunshots on Saturday. In both the cases - in Hathras and Mathura in west UP -- the daring assailants came to get undertrials freed. In the Hathras incident, as many as five people were killed.

It was a peaceful day at the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) court in Hathras till noon when three motorcycle-borne assailants arrived on the scene. Even before the police team accompanying murder accused Kamlesh Yadav and Satyaveer could know what was happening, the bike-riders opened fire killing the two on the spot.

There was pandemonium in the court as the advocates and their clients scurried around for safety. But at least one police officer did not lose his cool. As the assailants tried to escape, sub-inspector Tasleem Haider Rizvi who had come from Agra for evidence in another case, chased them. An exchange of fire followed and one was killed died on the spot while his two accomplices succumbed later at the hospital.

UP Police Additional DG Brij Lal told reporters in Lucknow that Rizvi had been given an out-of-turn promotion for the exemplary bravery. The three assailants could not be identified.

In a similar incident, bike-riders stormed the district court in Mathura to get Virender Pehelwan, a murder accused, freed. The assailants fired several shots in the air to scare away the police, and fled with the accused, who, witnesses said, was not in handcuffs.

Police officials later told reporters that Virender had been in jail for more than four years on a murder charge while other co-accused in the case had been released.