Wife, lover killed Hindu leader

Wife and her lover killed a prominent Hindu leader atLucknow during his morning walk and police arrested all of them.

Three people, including the wife of the leader of aright-wing Hindu outfit Ranjeet Bachchan, were arrested in connection with hismurder, a senior police official said on Thursday.

Bachchan, 40, was shot dead on February 2 while he was outon a morning walk, barely a couple of kilometres away from the high-securityUttar Pradesh legislature complex in the heart of the state capital.

Smriti Srivastava, described as Bachchan's second wife, herfriend Deependra and driver Sanjeet Gautam were arrested, Lucknow PoliceCommissioner Sujit Pandey said.

Smriti told police that a divorce case was going on betweenher and Bachchan since 2016, but he was delaying the process by not appearingfor court proceedings, Pandey said.

She claimed that Bachchan was creating hurdles in hermarriage with Deependra. "Those involved in the murder are Smriti Srivastava(second wife), her friend Deependra, Sanjeet Gautam (driver) and Jeetendra (theshooter). Deependra was the person who convinced everyone to commit the crime.Smriti was part of the whole conspiracy. We arrested Sanjeet Gautam fromLucknow, Deependra has been arrested from UP-MP border and Smriti too has beenarrested from Vikasnagar (in Lucknow)," the police commissioner told reportershere.

Elaborating about the incident, Pandey said, "Three people(Deependra, Sanjeet and Jeetendra) moved from Rae Bareli at 2.30 am (on theintervening night of February 1 and 2). On February 2, Deependra was dropped atHazratganj crossing, the shooter was dropped near Capitol cinema hall crossing.At 5.40 am, Ranjeet Bachchan, Kalindi and Aditya moved out from their home formorning walk. The shooter followed them in Hazratganj, and attacked themoutside Globe Park."