LUCKNOW, Feb. 13 -- Shoaib Qidwai alias Bobby, a 50-year-old lawyer described by police as a close aide of late gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, was shot dead in broad daylight on the busy Lucknow-Ayodhya highway in Barabanki district on Friday afternoon, police said. His bullet-riddled body was found on the driver's seat of his car, they added.

According to police, Shoaib was driving his car alone when unidentified assailants intercepted the vehicle near Asaini turn under Nagar Kotwali police station limits around 1.30 pm. The attackers allegedly surrounded the car and opened indiscriminate fire from the front and side, killing him on the spot.

Additional director general of police, Lucknow zone, Praveen Kumar said preliminar...