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In a daring shootout, three persons were on Wednesday shot dead outside the court of Additional District Judge Ashok Kumar in Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh at around 1230 hours (IST).
Two of the deceased were identified as Babu Ram, a noted history sheeter, and Amar Veer, a constable in the Special Branch of the Delhi police.
According to Superintendent of Police (Ghaziabad) R K Chaturvedi, five persons came in a Maruti Zen and shot at Babu Ram and the others.
The assailants then managed to slip away through the VIP gate.
Police sources said the main suspect in the case is Rakesh Hasanpuria, who had contested the recent Uttar Pradesh zilla parishad (local self-government body) elections from behind bars.
The reason for the killing was not yet known. Both Babu Ram and Rakesh belong to Hasanpur village in Ghaziabad district.
Babu Ram had come to court to depose in some case.
D N Gaur, an official of the Ghaziabad Bar Association (GBA), told rediff.com that following a similar incident two years ago, additional police guards had been posted to the court premises. However, they were withdrawn two months after the incident.
The GBA is holding an emergency meeting on Friday to decide the future course of action.
Gaur said, "We have demanded that immediate security arrangements be made in the court premises."
Incidentally, two constables who were posted at the very spot where the shootout took place, were conspicuous by the absence.
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