LUCKNOW, Nov. 11 -- Mohammad Sharif, an accused in the December 2007 attack on the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Group Centre in Rampur that left seven security personnel and a civilian dead, was shot dead by two unidentified motorcycle-borne assailants near Khajuria police station on Tuesday evening. Sharif was returning home with his son after marking attendance at the police station when the assailants intercepted them barely 20 metres from the police station around 7pm. One of them allegedly shot him in the temple before both fled. His son collapsed in shock after witnessing the attack. Sharif was rushed to a hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries during treatment. Rampur police, in a post on X, said the Khajuria police were conducting inquest proceedings. Sharif had been sentenced to death by a Rampur court on November 2, 2019, along with three other accused - Sabauddin, Imran Shahzad and Mohammad Farooq. Another accused, Jang Bahadur Khan, was sentenced to life imprisonment. However, the Allahabad high court, in October 2025, acquitted all five of the principal charges related to the attack, citing serious shortcomings in the investigation, including lapses in the handling and preservation of evidence and inconsistencies in witness accounts. It held that the prosecution had failed to establish the charges beyond reasonable doubt. The high court, however, upheld their convictions under the Arms Act and sentenced them to 10 years' imprisonment. After adjusting the period already spent in jail against his sentence, Sharif was released in November 2025. The Uttar Pradesh government subsequently challenged the high court's verdict in the Supreme Court, which issued a notice on its petition seeking responses from the accused. The state's challenge was pending while Sharif was killed. The attack on the CRPF Group Centre took place in the wee hours of January 1, 2008, when heavily armed assailants stormed the CRPF Group Centre in Rampur, killing seven personnel and an unidentified rickshaw puller. According to the FIR registered at Civil Lines police station on January 1, 2008, a police patrol team heard gunshots near gate number one around 12.25am. Police personnel spotted four to five armed men firing at CRPF personnel with automatic weapons. The police team retaliated, but the attackers overpowered it and entered the Group Centre, opening indiscriminate fire. Two members of the patrol team, constable Indrapal Singh and home guard Aftab Khan, were also injured. The first three accused - Baba alias Jang Bahadur Khan, Mohammad Sharif alias Sohel and Faheem alias Arshad - were arrested on January 9, 2008. Imran Shahzad, Mohammad Farooq and Sabauddin were arrested the following day. Police filed a chargesheet and several supplementary chargesheets, while the prosecution examined 38 witnesses during the trial. Following their conviction in 2019, the accused challenged the verdict before the Allahabad high court, which overturned the principal convictions in October 2025....