Following the incident of brutal killings of two BJP leaders at Bharuch town in South Gujarat on Monday, the police have initiated a massive search operation to arrest unidentified assailants.
On Monday evening two unidentified bikers gunned down BJP’s former president of Bharuch district Shirish Bengali and the saffron party’s former district general secretary (youth wing) Pragnesh Mistry at Bengali’s office in the main market of Bharuch town.
Three teams headed by DYSP level officers have been deputed to investigate in the sensational murder case of political leaders.
The police are still confused whether the murders of two BJP leaders who were also active in Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are politically motivated or a case of personal enmity.
The attack on Bengali was launched soon after he returned from a party meeting convened in order to discuss the upcoming local self-Government bodies. Bengali runs a local Gujarati daily and he and Mistry were sitting in his office after the meeting. Suddenly two motorcycle-borne assailants came and shot them from point blank range leaving both leaders dead. In fact Bengali was dead on the spot but people took Mistry to nearby hospital where the doctor declared him brought dead.
“The deceased — Bengali and Mistry — were not politically active. At present they didn’t hold any post too. We need to find out what was the motive of assailants,” said the police, adding that they are checking CCTV footage, call details of victims and also taking statements people staying in the same locality where the printing press of Bengali is situated.
Bengali was a senior functionary of the RSS and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) in Bharuch district and had later been moved to serve the BJP as the district general secretary. He has also held the post of director with the State-owned Gujarat Narmada Fertilisers Corporation (GNFC). This is not the first time Bengali had been attacked. Around two decades back Bengali was attacked, but it was purely personal enmity. As far as Mistry is concern, he was also a senate member of Surat based Veer Narmad South Gujarat University.
Meanwhile, thousands of people joined funeral of two BJP leaders on Monday afternoon and paid homage to the deceased.