2 held for murder of Mandsaur BJP leader

INDORE/MANDSAUR: Police have nabbed two suspects for the murder of BJP leader and municipal council chairman

Prahlad Bandhwar

in Mandsaur on Thursday. The alleged shooter, Manish Bairagi, has a fetish for being photographed with guns.

Bairagi and co-accused Ankit Maheshwari were rounded up in Ratlam. Police say a land dispute triggered the murder. Witnesses have told cops that Bairagi spoke with the BJP leader for a few minutes, touched his feet and then shot him twice at point-blank range.

When Bairagi’s name came up as the prime suspect, rumours swirled on Friday that he was a BJP worker, considering that his social media page is filled with pictures of him at BJP rallies. The party issued a statement clarifying that Bairagi was not a party activist and BJP has no link with him.

Police say Bairagi used to smuggle

poppy

husk (doda chura) and cannabis. It’s alleged that Manish worked for Bandhwar during the elections and was expecting his support in getting some land for free from the municipal corporation. When Bandhwar refused, Bairagi shot him dead, say police.

Bandhwar was sitting in his friend Lokendra Kumawat’s shop on Thursday afternoon when Bairagi and Ankit arrived on a motorcycle. Bairagi spoke to the BJP leader for some time, bowed to offer his respects, and then shot him, Kumawat told police. His autopsy showed bullets in his head and abdomen. Around 20 hours after the murder, police nabbed the two suspects.

Kotwali TI S L Borsi said, “The two accused were nabbed near Ratlam and have been brought back to Mandsaur. We are interrogating them to ascertain the motive for the murder. The major reason that has come up so far in the investigation is land dispute.” Both accused are residents of Yash Balaaji Colony in Mandsaur.

Senior BJP leaders, including former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, attended the last rites of Bandhwar on Friday morning. Markets in the city and parts of

Neemuch

and Ratlam were closed to mourn Bandhwar.


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