A UK-based gangster was likely involved in the killing of Nafe Singh Rathee, Haryana unit president of Indian National Lok Dal and former MLA, the Haryana Police has said.
The police also said they would interrogate a close associate of the gangster, lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail, in connection with the case. Earlier, the police interrogated Sandeep, alias Kala Jathedi, one of the top gangsters in Haryana, in Tihar Jail.
During interrogations, Sandeep denied any involvement in Singh’s murder.
Rathee and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) worker Jai Kishan were killed when unidentified assailants sprayed their sports utility vehicle (SUV) with bullets at Bahadurgarh, near Delhi, on Sunday. The assailants who shot dead Rathee in his SUV told his nephew, who was driving the vehicle, that they were sparing his life so that he could inform his family, according to an FIR.
In the FIR, the police named former MLA Naresh Kaushik, Karambir Rathee, Ramesh Rathee, Satish Rathee, Gaurav Rathee, Rahul and Kamal.
The FIR also mentioned five unnamed accused.
Meanwhile, in his police complaint, Rathee’s nephew Rakesh said five unidentified killers, who were following them in a car, came out and fired indiscriminately near the Barahi railway crossing. Complainant Rakesh told police that he was behind the wheel and Rathee was sitting next to him. In the rear seat, two persons, including the INLD worker killed in the incident, were sitting.
Rakesh said they were returning to Bahadurgarh on Sunday evening.
The attack, which came less than two months before the Lok Sabha polls, drew sharp reactions from the opposition parties in the BJP-ruled state.
On Monday, Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij said the probe into Rathee’s killing will be handed over to the CBI even as 12 people, including a former MLA, were booked in connection with the murder.
The statement came as Vij, in the Haryana Assembly, denied the Opposition’s charge that the law-and-order mechanism has collapsed in the state.