Meerut: Police in UP’s Meerut on Sunday promised to launch an in-depth probe after they were confronted with an old poster, a “hit list” of sorts having on its top the photo of Ashish Gujjar who was shot dead on Saturday. Photos and names of eight other men belonging to the Gujjar community were also on the poster which was circulated in May this year.Ashish was shot dead by unidentified assailants on Saturday in Meerut’s Shobhapur village, triggering caste tension in the region. He was one of the accused arrested in the killing of Dalit youth Gopi Parya on April 4, two days after the Bharat bandh violence on April 2 which witnessed one of the worst caste clashes in the western UP region.Nine persons, including Parya’s brother Prashant and their father Tarachand have been named in the murder of Ashish. While police have arrested Tarachand, Prashant and seven other accused are still absconding.People of Gujjar community also alleged that it was done to avenge the murder of Parya. They said that the poster carrying the names and photos of the nine Gujjar men was made and circulated soon after the Parya’s murder.The poster hints at avenging the murder of Parya by eliminating all the nine youth.Enraged locals of the Gujjar community on Sunday claimed that they had informed the then Kankerkhera SHO Deepak Sharma about the poster, “but he did not take any action”.“We had approached the local police station with a complaint. The police didn’t act even when the posters were widely shared on Facebook and WhatsApp. There were other provocations and threats in the months leading to murder of Ashish on Saturday,” says Anil Kumar, a resident of Shobhapur.When contacted, senior police officers said that they have taken cognizance of the poster and appropriate action will be taken.“I was surprised when I was told about the poster, and also that it was shared with local police in May. We will get to the bottom of this,” SP (city) Ranvijay Singh said.Incidentally, Dalit youth Parya’s name was also on the top of another list of “conspirators” of bandh violence, prepared allegedly by people of Gujjar community in Shobhapur. Parya was later killed allegedly by youths of Gujjar community on April 4. The murder had pitted the two dominant communities of Shobhapur against each other.Eight months after Parya's killing, Shobhapur village is on the boil again. It wore a gloomy look on Sunday.Apart from heavy police force, PAC was also deployed in the village. Ashish had sustained six bullets in an indiscriminate firing and had succumbed on the spot.“We have detained 15 people who are being rounded up to trace the absconding accused in Ashish’s murder,” SP (city) said.

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