Mandsaur: Hours after the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party turned the heat on ruling Congress over the sensational murder of its leader Prahlad Bandhwar in Mandsaur, the situation turned on its head after the police named two men in the murder including a BJP worker.
Senior BJP leader and the chairman of Mandsaur municipality Prahlad Bandhwar was murdered in full public view as a man had shot him in the head from close range in Mandsaur on Thursday. Bandhwar had died on the spot.
The police have named two suspects in the FIR including Manish Bairagi, who is said to be a BJP worker and a close aide of the dead leader.
The BJP has denied the involvement of its party worker.
“If anyone drapes party colours around his neck or gets clicked with party leaders, he won’t be considered a party worker. The man Manish Bairagi was never associated with the party,” BJP state general secretary Banshilal Gurjar said.
City SP Rakesh Mohan Shukla told News18 that different police parties have been dispatched in separate directions in search of the culprits. A police force was also deployed in the town to keep things in check.
“Bairagi had approached Bandhwar on Thursday and after an argument, Bairagi fired two shots on the leader,” said Shukla. It seems Bairagi was upset from the BJP leader as he declined to hand over the government land to his name. The said land houses Bairagi’s office.
Angry locals staged a bandh in Mandsaur protesting the murder on Friday. Locals inform that Bandhwar lay on the ground, shot for over 30 minutes before the police landed on the spot. Bairagi was at large till reports last came in.
Bandhwar’s last rites would be performed in Mandsaur later in the day and the ceremony would be attended by former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and state head Rakesh Singh.
Meanwhile the verbal exchanges continued between the BJP and Congress over the killing.
Chouhna on Thursday had written a letter to Chief Minister Kamal Nath expressing concern over the murders in Indore and Mandsaur seeking action against the culprits. Nath had responded to his letter in assurance of immediate action. Nath states that his government is committed to action against criminals.
Claiming that he did not wish to enter into political mud-slinging, the Chief Minister sought to remind Chouhan about high crime graph as reported by NCRB reports in previous years.
However, things changed in no time after pictures of accused Manish Biaragi posing with senior BJP leaders went viral.
Sources claimed that Bairagi was close to Bandhwar and was pressurizing him for some work for a while. On Thursday, Bairagi approached Bandhwar at District Co-operative Bank and soon after the two entered into a heated argument which prompted Biaragi to fire a shot on the leader, sources said.
After the firing at Bandhwar, Bairagi panicked and fled the spot leaving behind his bike.
The Facebook account of Bairagi also carries a picture of him campaigning for the BJP.
“Two persons have been named in the FIR and there are two eyewitnesses in the case so it isn’t a major probe. The culprits would be nabbed shortly,” CM Nath said on Friday.
To add, there is still no headway in the sensational murder of middle-aged businessman Sandip Agrawal who was killed in a shootout presumably by some contract killers in Indore on Wednesday.
Mounting attack on the Congress government further, the BJP has decided to hand over a memorandum.
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