AGRA: A former councillor from Etah, who is the main accused in the alleged murder of a Muslim cleric in 2016, has now been accused of being involved in six murders, including that of two sadhus in Aligarh in the past month.According to police, the accused Sabir Ali had planned to target sadhus as part of a conspiracy to frame the witnesses of the 2016 murder case. He admitted before police that since UP chief minister was a sadhu, crime against such people would have forced police to take quick action and book his rivals on the basis of clues left behind by him and his associates.Aligarh police has arrested five people, including Ali alias Dinesh Pratap Singh, his son, Nadeem and three others Salman, Irfan and Yaseen in this connection on Tuesday. Three others associates of his, Mustkeem, Naushad and Afsar are however still absconding.Aligarh SSP, Ajay Kumar Sahini told TOI that Ali is from Dalit community and contested councillor elections from reserved seat in district Etah. However, before contesting the polls, he had converted to Islam.SSP said that Ali owns considerable land in Etah and he wanted to develop a colony there, but was not getting the desired price for the same. He then decided to donate 2 bighas land for a “Madrasa” and called cleric Shehzad from Bihar to run the same. After sometime, the land cost escalated and people wanted to buy it. He then asked the cleric to go back to Bihar as he wanted to sell that land too.However, when the cleric refused, Ali framed him in a fake case. However, during investigations, the police found the charges false and closed the case.Ali then decided to eliminate the cleric and paid Rs 5 lakh to a contract killer, Shahbaz. On April 2, 2016, Shahbaz with the help of his associates killed the cleric. The murder was witnessed by the cleric’s son, Shoaib, who raised an alarm, alerting neighbours.The Cleric’s wife later lodged a complaint against Ali and his son and they were arrested.In jail, Ali came in contact with Afsar and others and hatched the conspiracy to fix his rivals, including Haji Kesar, Jaan Mohamad and Kale alias Firoz and Cleric’s son, Shoaib. He stuck a deal of Rs 15 lakh with Afsar and other for executing the plan, said police.The first murder in the series was committed on August 12 under Pali police station, where two Sadhus and a farmer were brutally beaten with sticks. Two of them including a Sadhu and the farmer were killed and another sadhu is still under treatment at the hospital. The accused dropped a chit, with names of Ali’s rivals and their mobile numbers written on them, at the scene of the crime.They also took away the mobile phones of the Sadhus and used them to call Haji and others.The second case occurred on the intervening night of 26 and 27 August in Atrauli. They attacked a Sadhu but when they failed to kill him, they hacked another farmer to death. They again planned a murder of a sadhu in Durainin ashram in Harduaganj on the intervening night of 14 and 15 September.But failed as lot many people were present there. They hid themselves in a farm in the same area and when it’s owner and his wife questioned them, they thrashed them to death. They later also killed a sadhu.Police said that when they contacted the witnesses, who were called by the accused, the entire conspiracy unraveled. The witnesses had given their mobile phones for recording, which proved that they were being purposely called to mislead the police.Sahini said that a police team comprising eight police men has been rewarded Rs 1.25 lakhs for cracking this case. He said that Aligarh police has also announced reward of Rs 25,000 each on the absconding criminals.

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