CHANDIGARH: Two unidentified motorcycle-borne assailants shot dead a senior Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) leader at Basti Jodhewal locality in Ludhiana on Tuesday.
Ravinder Gosain (58) — mukhya shikshak (chief trainer) and mandal pradhan of a local BJP unit — was returning home from the Mohan Shakha of the RSS in the industrial city, when two armed men riding a yellow-coloured Honda Stunner motorcycle came and pumped bullets on him at the Kailash Nagar road near his house.
Gosain was hit by two bullets--one on head and the other on shoulder, said police. He was taken to hospital but declared brought dead.
At the time of the incident, he was holding his granddaughter Dikhshita and his grandson was standing near him. The assailants—identified as wearing turbans and masks—escaped after committing crime.
The CCTV footage secured by the police from the cameras installed in the locality revealed that both the assailants had been roaming in the area since morning.
Ludhiana Police Commissioner RN Dhoke said: “A case has been registered and investigations are going on. We are exploring all angles. Police teams have been dispatched to various places in search of the killers.” The police have released the pictures of suspects on social media with contact numbers, he added.
Yash Giri, city secretary of the RSS, while condemning the incident said it was “definitely a target killing”. “The victim was in Sangh uniform and about to enter his house when the killers targeted him,” he said.Meanwhile, home minister Rajnath Singh, who was in Ferozepur on Tuesday, took up the killing with Punjab CM Amarinder Singh.Opposition parties, the BJP and the SAD, strongly condemned the killing. Significantly, last year, another senior RSS leader Jagdish Gagneja died after he was shot by bike-borne assailants in Jalandhar. The incident also comes at a time when BJP has been protesting against the killing of RSS and its own workers in Kerala.