A lawyer was shot dead inside a district court complex in Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur district, reports Livelaw. The lawyer has been identified as Bhupendra Pratap Singh.
The lawyer’s body has been found on the third floor of the district court complex.
“The incident is horrifying and Singh was shot within the court premises. He was shot 2-3 hours back when he was talking to someone. It was a gun shot,” a local lawyer was quoted by the Bar and Bench website.
Former UP Chief Minister Mayawati tweeted, “The murder of a lawyer in the court premises of Shahjahanpur district of UP in broad daylight is very sad and shameful. This exposes the BJP government’s claims on law and order in the state. Who is safe in UP? Government should pay proper attention to this.”
Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra tweeted, “ The legal and judicial fraternity is an integral pillar of our democracy. The brutal murder of an advocate in broad daylight in court premises in Shahjahanpur is another chilling reminder that no one is safe in today’s UP – not women, not farmers and now not advocates.”
This is not the first time a lawyer has been murdered in Uttar Pradesh, which is governed by BJP’s Yogi Adityanath. In 2019, a supreme Court lawyer, identified as Kuldeep Kaur, was found murdered in Noida.
A lawyer (identified as Bhupendra Pratap Singh) was shot dead today inside the district court complex in Uttar Pradesh's Shahjahanpur.
Lawyer's body has been found on the third floor of the district court complex. pic.twitter.com/bt42mytJdt
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) October 18, 2021
The same year, the first woman President of the state’s Bar Council, Darvesh Yadav, was shot inside the Agra Civil Court. The person, who shot Yadav dead too was a lawyer himself. Identified as Manish Sharma, Yadav’s killer too had later succumbed to his injuries.
Again in 2019, a government lawyer, identified as Nutan Yadav, was shot dead at her official residence in Etah.
