Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Ravi Vishwakarma was reportedly shot dead on Friday in Pipariya town of Hoshangabad district of Madhya Pradesh. Ravi Vishwakarma was the Chief of Goraksha wing in the district. About half a dozen people attacked him when he was returning from a VHP meeting in Hoshangabad with his colleagues.
मध्य प्रदेश: पिपरिया में अज्ञात लोगों ने विश्व हिन्दू परिषद के नेता की गोली मारकर हत्या की। वह अपनी कार से होशंगाबाद से पिपरिया स्थित अपने निवास आ रहे थे तभी करीब आधा दर्जन से अधिक लोगों ने रेलवे अंडर ब्रिज के नीचे उनकी कार पर लाठी व रॉड से हमला कर दिया। pic.twitter.com/Lhv4PjoljQ
— ANI_HindiNews (@AHindinews) June 27, 2020
As per reports, the incident took place when VHP leader was returning to his residence from a meeting along with Rajkumar Singh and Suresh Patel who are provincial co-organization members of Bajrang Dal. At around 6 pm when he was passing the busiest under-bridge of Pipariya city, ten people stopped his car and ambushed him with sharp-edged weapons, rods and sticks. After that, the attackers fired two shots at him.
A video os the attack has also surfaced on social media.
<पिपरिया में VHP नेता की गोलीमार कर हत्या का लाइव वीडियो आया सामने #VHPLeaderMurder #Pipariyamurder #Murdervideohttps://t.co/OmCY5XGGDF pic.twitter.com/xUsIc2WUSI
— MP Breaking News (@mpbreakingnews) June 27, 2020
It appears in the video that attackers pulled Ravi out of the car in a wounded condition and shot 2 bullets in his head. Ravi died on the spot. Other people sitting in the car were badly injured. The attackers fled the spot after murdering the VHP member.
After receiving the information the Mangalwara police station and station road police personnel reached the spot and recovered the car and three cartridges from the spot. Meanwhile, the brother of Ravi Vishwakarma also claimed that he suspects an attack on himself.
Reports suggest that Ravi Vishwakarma was already aware of plans attack on him. That’s is why he had handed over a memorandum to ASP AP Singh at Hoshangabad police station on Friday noon in which he mentioned a person named Rasukhdar can be a life threat to him. He also informed that his friend Rakesh Raghuvanshi has been implicated in the wrong charges.
The police have registered an FIR based on the statement of Ravi’s brother Amit, companions Rajkumar Singh and Suresh Patel who were present in the car. SDOP Shivendru Joshi said Ravi was attacked due to his old enmity, and the attack was carried out by the attackers only with intention of murdering him. Police have registered a case against ten people for the attack, and efforts are on to catch them.
VHP prant sah mantri Gopal Soni has alleged that it was a planned murder. He said that Vishwakarma was working for the protection of cows as district chief of VHP’s gau raksha wing, and his killing should be probed thoroughly.
This is not the first incident in Pipariya. Prior to this many VHP leaders have also been killed in broad daylight. On 9 October 2019, a VHP leader named Yuvraj Singh was shot dead in an attack in Mandasaur of Madhya Pradesh. He was at the tea shop near the Geeta Bhawan underbridge.
