An associate of Haryana’s former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala was shot dead by car-borne assailants while he was sitting on dharna at Rohtak to protest the state government’s land acquisition policy.
Manoj Sindhu, who had become the face of the Opposition’s month-long anti-government agitation against CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s widely celebrated farmland compensation policy, was gunned down on Thursday afternoon outside Rohtak’s upcoming Modern Industrial Township.
The victim, who was Rohtak district chief of Indian National Lok Dal’s rural-wing and vice-president of the recently constituted Haryana Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, was shot at close range by the killers who had stealthily infiltrated the anti-government dharna.
Apparently alert to a possible threat, the police was able to chase down and kill one of the attackers. Three others, travelling in the car, also surrendered after they were surrounded.
“We chased and intercepted the killers’ car near Pakasma village, which is around five kilometres away. One of them was killed while the other three have also sustained bullet injuries,” inspector-general of police (Rohtak range), V. Kamraja said.
He added, “The injured have been admitted to Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) here. The accused were earlier sitting on the dharna site and one of them fired at Sindhu from a close range.”
He said the police was trying to establish the antecedents of the three injured who have been admitted to Rohtak’s Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences. The IG said preliminary questioning suggest “personal animosity” as a possible motive.