Two senior Hindustan Petroleum officials shot dead inside UP plant, attacker escapes

The alleged attacker, who was accompanied by some others, barged into the plant around noon and fired several shots at the deceased.

Lucknow: Two senior officials of the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) were shot dead inside the Company’s compressed bio-gas plant in Uttar Pradesh’s Badaun district on Thursday.

The deceased were identified as Sudheer Gupta, the manager of the Plant and Harshit Mishra, who was deputy manager there.

According to the police sources, the alleged attacker, who was accompanied by some others, barged into the plant around noon and fired several shots at Gupta and Mishra. They were rushed to the Community Health Centre at Dataganj where the doctors declared them dead on arrival.

The firing triggered chaos inside the Plant and the employees ran for their safety when they heard the sound. Taking advantage of the chaos, the attacker and others managed to make good his escape from the spot, sources said.

Some reports said that the attacker, identified as Ajay Pratap Singh, was a former employee, who was a pay loader operator at the plant and had been sacked a few months back. The two had also reportedly sought security for themselves.

Eye witnesses said that Singh forced his way into the plant and after a brief altercation opened fire at the two officials.

Sources said that attempts were made to kill them earlier as well.

Senior police officials, accompanied by a forensic team, had reached the spot. Entry was banned into the plant. ‘’We are investigating the matter from different angles and will soon apprehend the attacker,’’ said a senior police official in the district.

The HPCL compressed bio-gas plant is situated at Sajani village in Musajhag area in the district.