Chhatrapal Singh Rawat, a BJP worker from Madhya Pradesh, was found murdered in Gwalior on Monday. This is third such murder of a BJP worker in Madhya Pradesh within a week. Another BJP office-bearer, Magan Siddiqui was seriously injured after he was reportedly attacked in Jabalpur on Sunday.
While the Police have ruled out political rivalry or pattern behind the killings, the party cadres staged protests against the killings. Chhatrapal used to work as a bus conductor and had gone for work on Sunday. When he did not return in the evening, the family lodged a police complaint. On Monday afternoon, his body was found near river Parvati. There were injury marks on his body. The body has been sent for postmortem and further investigation is underway.
As per reports, Chhatrapal was the cousin of Narendra Rawat, BJP district (rural) secretary. Narendra Rawat was preparing effigies of Congress workers to protest against killings of BJP workers when police informed him of his cousin’s murder.
Earlier on Sunday, Balwadi BJP leader Manoj Thackeray was found murdered in a field after he had gone for a morning walk. Prior to that, Mandsaur BJP leader Prahlad Bandhwar was shot dead in full public view. On Sunday, a BJP leader Jitendra Soni of the Barwani district, his son Ravendra and two of his relatives were assaulted and robbed by unidentified persons near Charvi village, 30 km from the district headquarters.
The increase of crime against BJP leaders has raised concerns about the growing crime rates in the state within weeks of Congress party coming into power.