New Delhi: A journalist in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao district was allegedly shot at months after he had said he was being threatened by members of the land mafia.

Twenty-five-year-old Mannu Awasthi was admitted to a hospital with injuries to his right shoulder after he was fired at while riding a scooter on the night of June 24, Saturday, Indian Express has reported.

He is in a stable condition now and is undergoing treatment at the Lala Lajpat Rai Hospital in Kanpur.

Unnao Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Shashi Shekhar Singh said that used and live cartridges were recovered from the scene of the shooting.

However, by the afternoon of Sunday, Unnao Superintendent of Police (SP) Siddharth Shankar Meena had expressed doubts as to whether Awasthi had been shot at. Meena was quoted by Express as having said that he neither informed police and nor could the doctor at the Unnao hospital allegedly say with certainty that his was a bullet wound.

Meena also claimed the recovered cartridge did not match the injury.

Express noted in its report that in March this year, Awasthi had submitted a formal complaint to the Unnao SP and other senior officers, saying there was a threat to his life by four members of the land mafia. He also released videos saying that he was being followed by cars without registration places and that a sitting MLA was responsible for the pressure on him because he was following a story on the land mafia.

The Unnao SP has meanwhile claimed that Awasthi had allegedly said that policemen in the security cover provided to him were harassing him, and so the cover was withdrawn.

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