AHMEDABAD: Shailesh Patel, Vapi Taluka Vice President of the Bharatiya Janata Party, was shot dead while driving in the morning on Monday. Patel was a native of Vapi’s Kocharwa village in Gujarat’s Valsad district. Unidentified individuals opened fire on him when he was waiting in his SUV for his wife to return from a temple near Vapi town, police said
According to a Dungara police station official, the perpetrators on motorbikes approached Shailesh Patel’s SUV in Kocharva village and fired three to four shots at him. The incident occurred at 7.30 a.m., while Patel was waiting in his vehicle for his wife to return after prayers at the temple, according to the police. When the victim’s wife came out of the shrine after hearing the gun shot sound saw two masked youngsters fleeing on a bike. She saw her husband lying in a pool of blood in the driver’s seat.
The victim’s wife said the homicide was motivated by an old feud with certain well-known individuals. According to the official, Patel was transported to a private hospital in Vapi, where the doctor declared him dead. “We have issued an alert message into the incident and sealed all the entry and exit points of the district so that the assailants could not escape, we dispatched teams to apprehend the suspects named in the deceased wife’s complaint,” Deputy Superintendent of Police BN Dave said.
Local BJP officials expressed shock and anguish at the incident and requested an investigation. Valsad District BJP President Hemant Kansara said: “The killing of Shailesh Patel today, is very tragic. He was a very good committed party worker.”