Sanjeev Maheshwari, alias Jeeva, a dreaded criminal from western Uttar Pradesh and an accused in several criminal cases, was shot dead at the Lucknow civil court premises on Wednesday. A girl and one police personnel are among those injured in the shootout.
“One criminal named Sanjeev Jeeva was shot today. Two police officials who brought him also sustained injuries. A child was also injured and admitted to trauma centre,” Upendra Kumar Agarwal, Joint Commissioner of Police, Law and Order, Lucknow said.
As per preliminary reports, the assailants, who are yet to be identified, came dressed as advocates and fired shots inside the court premises. Visuals showed chaotic scenes at the Lucknow court premises following the shootout.
There is a huge presence of police personnel and senior officers at the spot. The police are yet to confirm the death of the gangster.
“A person opened fire in UP’s Lucknow Civil Court. The injured has been sent to Trauma Centre. We do not have any detail as of now,” the Lucknow DCP said.
Responding to a question on the incident, UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said that he wasn’t aware of any such incident but assured that no guilty will be spared.
The reaction came after Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav raised serious questions on the law and order situation in the state under the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government.
“Is it a democracy? The question is not who is being killed but the question is that one is being killed where security is the highest,” Akhilesh said.
Who is Sanjeev Jeeva?
A close aide of Mukhtar Ansari, Jeeva was lodged at the Lucknow Central Jail and was brought to the court for a hearing. A resident of Muzaffarnagar, he used to work as a compounder and was later accused of kidnapping the owner of the same pharmacy he used to work at.
He shot to the limelight in the 90s, when he was accused of kidnapping the son of a prominent Kolkata-based businessman and demanding a ransom of Rs 2 crore. He later went on to be associated with the Haridwar-based Nazin gang and later with the Satyendra Barnala gang.
Jeeva was involved in the high-profile murder of BJP leader Brahmadutt Dwivedi on February 10, 1997. Jeeva was sentenced to life imprisonment in this case. He was later named as an accused in the Krishnanand Rai murder case but was acquitted by the court in 2005.
It is believed that Mukhtar Ansari’s fascination with modern weapons and Jeeva’s resourceful network that could help him with it is what earned him Ansari’s backing.
As per police records, Jeeva was named as an accused in over 22 cases. Of these, he was acquitted in 17. Jeeva used to operate from prison and was accused of planning the murder of businessman Amit Dixit alias Goldy in 2017. Jeeva and three others were sentenced to life imprisonment in this case.