In a nerve chilling incident on Saturday afternoon, prominent AJSU party leader and one of the strongest contenders for Chatra parliamentary constituency Tileshwar Sahu, was shot dead at his Barhi residence in broad daylight. The incident reportedly left one minor girl injured also.
The incident happened at Sahu’s house, ‘Barhi House’, at around 2.30 pm while the slain leader was interacting with party workers at a programme organised on ‘International Women’s Day’ when he was fired at by two armed assailants in the presence of his personal bodyguards. The assailants are said to be members of the banned outfit — the People liberation Front of India (PlFI). Sahu reportedly sustained three bullet injuries.
“One person has been arrested with pistol and bullet. He has confessed that Sahu has been killed at PlFI’s command. We are following this line of investigation,” said SP of Hazaribagh. Reacting to the gruesome incident, the AJSU party has called for Statewide bandh on Sunday and has also postponed its parliamentary board meeting slated to take place to select candidates for lok Sabha elections. The party has termed it an irreparable loss at a crucial time.
“This is indeed a severe jolt to the party. His absence at this crucial juncture spells loss for us,” said AJSU spokesperson Deosharan Bhagat. Notably, Sahu had arranged a programme on International Women’s Day at his Barhi residence. After the programme concluded Sahu, the former Chairman of the Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board, came down from the dais to interact with the female workers.
In the meantime, two youths in the age group of 24 to 25 years came near Sahu on the pretext of shaking hands however one of them fired at Sahu knocking him down. In between another ultra also opened fired but it hit the wall and in rebound injured a minor girl.