Varanasi: A 42-year-old Banarasi saree weaver was bludgeoned to death at his shop in the Hanuman Phatak area under Adampur police station around 3 am on Saturday, while a betel trader and another person were injured in the attack.Acting swiftly, Adampur police and the Special Operations Group arrested the accused, Mohammad Tanjim (26).ADCP Vaibhav Bangar said Tanjim snatched a sub-inspector’s pistol and opened fire at the police team while trying to escape. Police launched a cordon operation and tracked him near Kashi railway station. When surrounded, he allegedly fired again, prompting retaliatory firing in which Tanjim sustained a bullet injury to his leg and was caught. He was rushed to the district hospital after police recovered the snatched pistol.Bangar said that surveillance inputs and CCTV footage helped investigators to identify Tajim as the prime suspect. During initial interrogation Tajim divulged that he had an argument with the victims over a petty dispute a few days ago. On Friday eveining, they had quarelled again after which he decided to kill them.DCP Kashi Zone Gaurav Banswal said the body of Ravi Chauhan alias Pappu (42) was sent for postmortem. Two injured persons, Ashok Paswan alias Babaji (60) and Ganeshu Kanaujia (55), were rushed to hospital. During the initial investigation, police found that the assailant attacked three people one after another with bricks and stones about 40 metres from the Hanuman Phatak police outpost before fleeing the scene. Chauhan, who was engaged in cutting Patta, a stencil used in handloom machines to obtain a particular design on the fabric, was killed on the spot. Officials suspected that the assailant entered the lane leading towards the Hanuman Phatak police outpost from the National Inter College side. He allegedly first attacked Paswan, who was sleeping outside his house, and later bludgeoned Chauhan, who was sleeping in a nearby shop, with a stone before fleeing after killing him. While escaping, he also targeted Kanaujia, who was sleeping outside his house, and fled past the police outpost.
