NIA takes over Kanpur principal’s murder case

New Delhi, Nov 20 (IANS) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has taken over the murder of Kanpur-based retired junior high school principal Ramesh Babu Shukla, who was killed by unidentified persons last year, an official said on Monday.

The anti-terror agency filed an FIR on Sunday and took over the case from the Uttar Pradesh Police following the Home Ministry's November 17 order, almost a year after the murder.

The agency re-registered the case which was earlier registered by the Uttar Pradesh Police on October 24, 2016 under sections of murder of Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Shukla, a retired principal of Swami Atmaprakash Brahmchari Junior High School in Kanpur, was killed on October 24, 2016 by unidentified persons at around 12.30 p.m near village Piwadi in Kanpur while returning home on a bicycle.

The state government had also recommended the NIA probe after it emerged that Shukla might have been killed by four accused in the Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train blast case.

An NIA official confirmed the registration of FIR at the agency's Lucknow unit and said the train blast accused had admitted to their involvement in the murder.

The Uttar Pradesh Police arrested two persons, Atif Muzaffar and Mohammad Danish, after Bhopal-Ujjain passenger train blast earlier this year. Their associate Faisal Khan was with them at the time of murder.

Muzaffar, according to police, told them that Danish, Faisal and he were testing a .30 calibre pistol when they accidentally fired a bullet that hit Shukla.

A ballistic test report later corroborated this evidence, police had said. The NIA, which investigated the train blast, chargesheeted Muzaffar and Danish and also alleged that Muzaffar and Danish had killed Shukla.

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