Advocate killed while heading to court to testify:Brother says, ‘He was threatened against testimony’; contract killing fixed for ₹10 lakh

“We have 5 bigha 18 biswa of leased land in the village, which teacher Kamlesh Sharma, Karan, Kallu and Ashish Parihar were trying to capture. The case was ongoing in court. On Feb 14, my brother, lawyer Sanjay Saxena and other family members had to testify. My brother left home in the morning for court to give testimony. While leaving home, he told me that he had received threats not to testify. The ones making threats said that if he testified, he would have to pay with his life. Around 11:30 in the morning, we received news of my brother’s murder.” This was stated by lawyer Sanjay Saxena’s brother, Advocate Kuldeep Saxena. Advocate Sanjay Kumar Saxena was shot dead on Saturday while going to court in Karera, Shivpuri district. This murder was not just a dispute, but rather a bloody outcome of a 10-year-old feud and the fear of losing the court case. Police have arrested 5 accused in this contract killing. These include a former sarpanch and his teacher nephew, while one is still absconding. Dainik Bhaskar team spoke with advocate Sanjay Saxena’s family regarding the murder case that happened in broad daylight. Brother reveals complete story of how the enmity started Advocate Kuldip Saxena said his brother, Advocate Sanjay Saxena, was murdered due to long-standing enmity with former Singdaua sarpanch Sunil Sharma and his nephew Kamlesh Sharma. The dispute began after Sanjay contested the 2015 panchayat elections against Sunil despite threats, and later intensified when he opposed them in land dispute cases. Fearing legal defeat and loss of land due to Sanjay’s strong advocacy, the uncle-nephew duo allegedly conspired and hired killers to eliminate him. Take 12 lakhs, kill Sanjay Saxena He said that in 2017, Sarpanch Sunil Sharma and his family had encroached upon Kishori Jatav’s land in the village. Brother had fought Kishori Jatav’s case, in which Kishori Jatav won. After losing the case, the accused were continuously giving threats. The accused were saying not to fight any case against them. If this is done now, they will kill and dump the body somewhere. Brother ignored their threat. He took up another land dispute case in favour of Mithua Jatav. Teacher Kamlesh Sharma is said to have occupied a part of this land. Sharma was continuously pressuring and threatening the brother to withdraw from the case or reach a settlement. He said that Suraj Adivasi from the village had told middle brother Anil Saxena that Kamlesh was saying take 12 lakh rupees and shoot and kill Sanjay Saxena. Had threatened – You won’t listen like this, will have to be dealt with Kuldeep says that Kamlesh Sharma and his uncle Sunil Sharma, were continuously threatening his elder brother, Advocate Sanjay. Drop the case; whatever happens in this case will be seen. Lawyer, sir, you won’t survive. When this case started, Kamlesh illegally occupied our land in front of the Hanuman temple in Singhdaua along with Ashish Khangar. During the uprooting of groundnut crop there, Neeraj, Kamlesh, and Sunil had also created a dispute in the village. According to Kuldeep, they had said that lawyer sir, you won’t survive. Since then, these people have been giving death threats. Kuldeep says that once they were giving these threats to elder brother in front of me. They were saying you won’t listen like this, we’ll have to deal with you. Contract killing for 10 lakhs, 2 lakhs advance After the murder, SP Aman Singh Rathore formed 6 teams, gathered scientific evidence, and activated informers. Suspicion from the victim’s brother led police to detain former sarpanch Sunil Sharma and his nephew Kamlesh Sharma, who confessed during interrogation. They had contacted criminal Sachin Rawat, fixing a ₹10 lakh contract killing, ₹2 lakh paid in advance and ₹8 lakh promised later. Sachin introduced three hired shooters from Dabra and Datia, who surveyed Advocate Saxena’s routine. On 14 February, the assailants arrived on an unnumbered bike near Bans Pahadi, intercepted Saxena on his way to court, and shot him dead. Took advantage of the shortcut dirt road he used to take to court According to the plan, the three criminals conducted surveillance for 3 days. There is a direct dirt road (shortcut) from Gharyali Mohalla to the court where lawyer Sanjay Kumar Saxena used to travel. Instead of going through the market for 6 km, he would reach court in 2 to 3 km using another shortcut. The criminals took advantage of this and killed him by shooting. The lawyer was found lying on the road by a girl making reels, and the matter reached the younger brother. After that, the murder of the lawyer was discovered. It is being reported that in the short PM, the bullet was fired from behind. The bullet exited through the chest due to being fired from close range. Police have recovered the country-made pistol used in the incident and the bike from the possession of the accused. On the day of murder, one accused was preparing for feast, another was in school On the day lawyer Sanjay Kumar of Karera was murdered, a Ramcharit Manas satsang was underway at former sarpanch Sunil Sharma’s house, where preparations for a feast were also in progress, and many villagers had gathered. Police picked up Sunil from the venue during a raid after the killing. Meanwhile, teacher Kamlesh Sharma was found teaching at his school; he later admitted he stayed there during the incident to avoid suspicion.