Former MLA among 12 booked in INLD chief murder case

 

 

 

 

 

 

POLICE on Monday booked a former Haryana MLA and 11 other people in connection with the murder of the Indian National Lok Dal’s state unit president Nafe Singh Rathee and a party worker in Bahadurgarh near Delhi. Rathee and party worker Jai Kishan were shot dead by assailants on Sunday. Three private gunmen hired by former MLA Rathee for security were also injured in the attack. In an FIR registered on Monday, police named former MLA Naresh Kaushik, Karambir Rathee, Ramesh Rathee, Satish Rathee, Gaurav Rathee, Rahul and Kamal. The FIR also mentions five unnamed people. The case has been registered under various IPC sections, including that of murder. Nafe Singh Rathee’s family has refused to cremate his body until those behind the murder were arrested.

 

The attack on the INLD Haryana unit chief came weeks before the Lok Sabha elections, drawing sharp reactions from opposition parties who alleged a breakdown in law and order in the BJP-ruled state. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar Sunday said that not a single culprit involved in this case will be spared. Police have been instructed to arrest the accused as soon as possible and take strictest action, he said. INLD senior leader Abhay Singh Chautala accused the Government of failing to provide Nafe Singh Rathee with security despite a threat to his life. He also demanded a CBI probe into the incident. The Opposition Congress and Aam Aadmi Party also hit out at the Manohar Lal Khattar Government over the incident.

 

The Congress on Monday described the killing of Indian National Lok Dal’s (INLD) Haryana unit president Nafe Singh Rathee as the State’s “first political murder” and demanded a probe into the incident either by a high court judge or a high court judge-monitored CBI investigation. Senior Congress leader Raghuvir Singh Kadian said Rathee’s death was not natural. “It is a political murder and the first such incident in Haryana after it was carved out as a separate state (in 1966),” Kadian said in the Assembly. Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij on Monday assured the Assembly of a CBI probe into the killing of the Indian National Lok Dal’s state chief Nafe Singh Rathee.