An officer bearer of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and one of National Students Union of India (NSUI) were shot dead in separate incidents in two districts of Madhya Pradesh within the span of six hours on Friday. The accused in both the cases are yet to be arrested even as the initial probe suggested personal enmity as the reason for one of the crimes.
In the first incident in Hoshangabad, district gau raksha pramukh (cow protection chief) of VHP, Ravi Vishwakarma (35) was shot dead in his car in Pipariya of Hoshangabad district—150 km from Bhopal—at 7.00pm on Friday evening.
Vishwakarma and two of his friends were returning in a car when a group of about 10 people with covered faces, accosted their car, attacked them with rods and sticks and then shot Vishwakarma dead, while allowing two of his friends to escape.
Superintendent of police of Hoshangabad, Santosh Singh Gaur, told THE WEEK that FIR has been registered against 10 persons on the complaint filed by the brother of the deceased. He assured that they will be arrested by Saturday night. Gaur ruled out any political or communal angle to the incident and said the accused were members of the same group as Vishwakarma and the initial probe suggested that there was a ‘battle of supremacy’.
Sources said Vishwakarma had been posting messages on social media since a few days which suggested he was about to make some revelations about a few people. Investigation is under way, the SP said.
Meanwhile, at about 1.00am on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday, Sonu Parochia (28) Mandla district general secretary of Congress-affiliated students’ body, National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), was shot dead at Mandla, about 380km from Bhopal.
Sonu was returning from the birthday party of his cousin brother on a bike with two of his friends when an SUV hit the bike. The assailant then got down and shot Sonu dead, sources said. They added that friends of Sonu were unharmed in this case too. The assailant has been identified as belonging to Jabalpur.
Mandla superintendent of police Deepak Kumar Shukla did not respond to calls or text messages by THE WEEK.
Former minister and Congress' Bhopal MLA P.C. Sharma attacked the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in the state, saying it had failed on various fronts. He said after the government came to power, there has been an increase in the number of incidents of loot, crimes against woman, and murder. Expressing shock over the killing of the NSUI office bearer, he demanded that the accused be arrested immediately.
