Advocate shoots himself dead in UP’s Mahoba; block Pramukh arrested

A 50-year-old advocate allegedly shot himself to death with his licensed rifle in Uttar Pradesh’s Mahoba after being harassed by a group of people who tried to extort Rs 60 lakh from him, police said on Sunday. A block pramukh (chairman) of Kabrai and his nephew have been arrested in this connection, they said.

“Senior advocate Mukesh Kumar Pathak, a resident of Samadnagar locality, killed himself late Saturday night. A suicide note was recovered and a case has been registered against block pramukh of Kabrai development block, Chhatrapal Yadav and his nephew Vikram Yadav, Anoop Kumar Dubey, SHO, Kotwali Police Station said. He said Chhatrapal’s brother-in-law Anand Mohan Yadav, Ravi Soni and Ankit Soni have also been named in the case, adding that efforts are on to trace them.

Elaborating further, Dubey said on February 7, a case of extortion and threat to kill (a person) was registered against Chhatrapal Yadav, Vikram Yadav, Anand Mohan Yadav, Ravi Soni and Ankit Soni on the basis of the complaint lodged by the advocate. He, however, said that the advocate had filed the complaint on January 19, adding that the matter is being probed by the crime branch.

Asked why was the case registered after 18 days of filing of complaint, the SHO said, “I do not know the reasons for this as I was posted in the Kotwali Police Station on February 9.” Citing family members of the deceased, Dubey said Pathak was called to a hotel on Saturday and the accused asked him to withdraw the complaint, following which he took the extreme step. Shivam Pathak, son of the deceased, told police that the accused had on Saturday afternoon called his father to reach a settlement in the extortion case, and threatened to kill him if he did not accede to their demand.

After this, he claimed, his father became depressed and shot himself.