At least three people were detained in connection to the murder of a man found at Union Minister Kaushal Kishore’s residence in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow, who was allegedly shot with the pistol belonging to the minister’s son, Vikas Kishore.

The victim, Vinay Srivastava, was also a friend of the minister’s son and he was killed after he lost Rs 15,000 in gambling. The murder reportedly happened in an act of pistol snatching.

The three people who were detained were identified as — Ankit Verma, Ajay Rawat and Shamim Gaji, according to the police.

Giving more details, the police said that Ankit Verma also dialed Vikas Shrivastava, brother of the victim, to inform him about the incident.

My son was not at place of crime, says Union Minister Kishore

The union minister has reacted to the incident, and said that his son was not present at their residence during the time the murder took place, but confirmed that the pistol belonged to Vikas.

“The pistol that police has recovered belongs to my son, Vikas Kishore. Police is conducting a thorough investigation. The culprits will not be spared. Vikas Kishore was not at the residence when the incident took place,” he said.

“Police detained his friends and the people present there when the incident took place. Vikas was extremely sad when he got to know about this, the deceased Vinay was a very good friend of my son,” the minister added. Read more here

Vikas Srivastava, brother of the victim, said he did not have any idea where Vikas Kishore was when the incident took place.

The incident took place at 4.15am on Friday at Kaushal Kishore’s Begaria village residence under Thakurganj police station area.

Police have recovered the pistol from the incident site.

Meanwhile, the body has been sent for postmortem. Reacting to the development later in the day, BJP MP Kaushal Kishore said that his son was not present when the firing took place.