Image used for representational purpose.
Image used for representational purpose.

Police looking for BJP leader’s kin who opened fire with air gun during communal riot in Madhya Pradesh

Police are searching for Mahendra Kushwah, brother-in-law of Mona Vikram Kushwah, a BJP municipal corporator from Ward 14 of Shajapur town.

BHOPAL: Police in Shajapur town in Madhya Pradesh are looking for the relative of a BJP leader who shot two persons with an air gun during communal violence that erupted on Saturday.

Police are searching for Mahendra Kushwah, brother-in-law of Mona Vikram Kushwah, a BJP municipal corporator from Ward 14 (Kachhiwada) of Shajapur town. 

Mahendra Kushwah has been booked for attempt to murder under Section 307 of the Indian Penal Coide as pellets fired by him from the airgun injured two persons on Saturday. Of the two injured persons, one was hospitalised in Indore, according to Shajapur district police superintendent Shailendra Chouhan. 

Police clarified that it was not police firing that caused injuries to the two persons on Saturday.  In a hurriedly convened press briefing in Bhopal Sunday, inspector-general (law and order) Makarand Deuskar said police did not fire even a single round on Saturday. "Our investigations have revealed that a man named Mahendra Kushwah open fire with his air gun. Pellets from the gun injured two persons," Deuskar said. 

The officer said a total of six cases have been registered against over 100 identified and unidentied persons in connection with Saturday's violence. Nine have been arrested so far. 

Importantly, prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal procedure Code were clamped in Shajapur following the clash between two groups over the burial of a young man in a disputed smashan-kabristan (cremation ground-graveyard) on Saturday.

Police had to use force and fire tear gas shells to disperse rioting groups near the disputed land on AB Road in Shajapur (160 km from Bhopal). At least ten people, including three cops were injured in the violence.

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