Balrampur. The growing popularity of Firoz Pappu, the former chairman of Tulsipur Nagar Panchayat and his activism in the Samajwadi Party, became the enemy of his life. He was murdered in the race to get the SP ticket in the assembly elections. Feroze had become an obstacle in the way of ticket of Jeba, daughter of former SP MP Rizwan Zaheer. On this Jeba’s husband Rameez conspired to get her out of the way. The entire story became clear when the former chairman was killed by Mehfooz, resident of Jarawa Marg, Merajul Haque alias Mama, resident of Jarawa Marg, resident of Imilia Ganeshpur Hall, Harraiya, and Shakeel, resident of Jethwa Pratapgarh. The police have also arrested the former SP MP, his daughter and son-in-law. 32 bore pistols, two live cartridges, iron rods and seven mobile phones were recovered from the accused.
Superintendent of Police Hemant Kutiyal said that on January 4, at around 10.20 pm, he was murdered near the house of former chairman Firoz Pappu. Rameez and Merajul, the sons-in-law of former SP MP Rizwan Zaheer, had commented on the internet media several times while electing Firoz. Firoz’s popularity was increasing. The former MP was trying to get his daughter Jeba a SP ticket. Firoz had the support of both Hindu and Muslim communities in the Tulsipur area. Before the incident, both the parties had gone to Lucknow to lobby for the SP ticket. In this political animosity, Rizwan, Zeeba, Rameez and Shakeel hatched a conspiracy to kill the former chairman. For this work, he engaged his nearest Merajul and Mahfouz.
On the evening of January 4, when Firoz along with his friend Shahid had left the house, Merajul and Mahfouz ambushed them and sat in the street. Firoz started walking towards his house in the night when Mahfouz attacked him from behind with an iron rod. As soon as he fell under him, he took six blows. Merajul slit his throat with a knife. After the incident, Merajul informed Rameez and Rizwan stopped at Zaheer’s kothi. The team that made the arrest included Inspector-in-Charge Tulsipur Awadhesh Kumar, Rehrabazar police station in-charge Jaideep Dubey, Pachpedwa police station in-charge Alok Rai, Sub-Inspector Vijay Singh, Kislay Mishra and Chief constable Chhotelal. CC Camera Checking Team Sub-Inspector Anil Dixit, Purnesh Pandey, Shobhit, Rahul Srivastava, SWAT and Surveillance Team Inspector Shyam Lal Yadav, Gurusen Singh, Head Constable Devendra Singh, Birju Kumar, Akhilesh Kumar, Rohit Shukla, Sushil Singh, Raju Singh Made a special contribution.
The plan was made a month ago: The police claim that the murder of Firoz was planned a month ago. Attempts were made to kill Firoz thrice, but failed each time. The reason being, someone lived with Firoz. The attackers were waiting for Firoz to be alone.
Police searched 250 cc camera footage: A case was registered against unknown assailants on the complaint of Afroz Ahmed alias Rinku, brother of the deceased former chairman. Under the direction of Additional Superintendent of Police Namrata Srivastava, 10 teams were formed under the leadership of Tulsipur Kunwar Prabhat Singh, CO City Varun Kumar Mishra and CO Utraula. Around 250 cc camera footages were collected in Tulsipur. The police team questioned more than 100 people and analyzed their mobile numbers. The murder case was exposed on the sixth day of the incident.
NSA was imposed on the former MP in the Panchayat elections: SP said that 14 charges including Goonda Act have been registered against former MP Rizwan Zaheer. Action was taken under the National Security Act by registering a case on charges of arson and rebellion during the 2021 Panchayat elections. In this episode he was also in jail for some time along with son-in-law Rameez. He has been acquitted in most of the cases.
Three-time MLA and two-time MP: Rizwan Zaheer has been a three-time MLA and two-time MP. He became an independent MLA from Tulsipur for the first time in 1989. Lost in the 1991 election. Elected MLA from SP in 1993 and BSP in 1996. Balrampur became MP by joining SP in the year 1998 and 1999. In 2004, he lost the Lok Sabha elections by contesting on a BSP ticket.
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