PATNA: A district-level Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader was shot dead near his house in Bihar’s Katihar district on Monday, police said.
Sanjeev Mishra, 55, a former Zilla Parishad member, was talking to some people near his house at about 8am when two men came on a motorcycle and opened fire, a police officer of Katikar Telta police station 300km from state capital Patna said.
“He was immediately taken to the nearest hospital, where he was declared brought dead. The accused managed to flee the spot,” the officer said.
Sanjeev Mishra’s supporters reached the Tetla police station and went on a rampage, attacking several police vehicles parked.
Katihar superintendent of police (SP) Jitendra Kumar said senior police officers have been sent to the spot.and that the case was being probed “from all possible angles” and the accused will be arrested soon.
Mishra’s family alleged that the Katihar BJP leader faced a risk to his life from a group of people led by a man they identified as Mohammad Mobid.
Mobid is alleged to have attacked Sanjeev Mishra last year which led to grievous injuries. Police said Mobid and 12 others were named as accused in the first information report (FIR) registered last year.
The BJP reacted to the death of its party leader with a sharp attack on chief minister Nitish Kumar, saying Monday’s killing indicated that political murders have resumed in Bihar.
“Nitish Kumar seems to have surrendered his chief minister’s post to his deputy Tejashwi Yadav. Kumar is not even properly handling his responsibility as the home minister,” said Bihar BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand.
Anand said Mishra, who had been associated with the BJP for a long time, was an executive committee member of the Katihar district BJP unit. At one time, he also held the post of the president of BJP’s Balrampur mandal.
