Lucknow health official shot dead

Lucknow:  A chief medical officer (CMO) was shot dead by unidentified gunmen when he was taking his morning walk outside his residence on Saturday -- the second such killing in the last six months.

V P Singh, 50, CMO (family welfare), was killed in the posh Gomti Nagar area.

"According to eyewitnesses, two motorcycle-borne assailants with their faces covered shot several rounds at the CMO and escaped," police inspector Abhimanyu Dhar Dwivedi told reporters.

Singh, a cardiologist, had taken the charge as CMO a few weeks ago. Before taking the charge, he was posted in city-based Lohia Hospital.

Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG, Lucknow) D K Thakur said: "We are yet to establish the motive behind the crime and the identity of the assailants."

"Teams have been constituted. The Special Task Force (STF) is also assisting the district police in the investigations," he added.

In October 2010, Vinod Kumar Arya, 55, who was also CMO (family welfare) was shot dead in Lucknow while he was on a morning walk.

"We are probing whether the two cases have any links...The similarity between the two incidents is being looked into," Thakur said.

Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh Provincial Medical Services' Association (UPPMS) has threatened to boycott work in hospitals and health centres across the state in protest against the killing.

"We will decide our future course of strategy in a meeting. We want a CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) enquiry into the matter," said D.R. Singh, an office bearer of the UPPMSA.