Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij announced in the Assembly on Monday that the probe into the killing of Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) State president Nafe Singh Rathee would be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) after the Opposition Congress moved an adjournment motion demanding a discussion on the law and order situation in the State.
“If the House is only satisfied with a CBI probe, then I assure the members that we will investigate the case only through the CBI,” Mr. Vij said, responding to the motion, which was admitted by Speaker Gian Chand Gupta after the Congress sought a High Court judge-monitored CBI probe into the killing.
The Home Minister, however, denied the Opposition’s charge that law and order had collapsed in the State. He said the State police are investigating the case, but he cannot share the details at present.
Rathee, a two-time MLA who served as Bahadurgarh Municipal Council chairman and national president of the Indian Style Wrestling Association of India, and INLD worker Jai Kishan were killed when assailants sprayed their SUV with bullets in Jhajjar’s Bahadurgarh town on Sunday evening.
‘Driver’s life spared’
According to the FIR, the assailants told Rathee’s nephew, Rakesh, who was driving the vehicle, that they were sparing his life so that he could warn his family. Twelve people, including former BJP MLA Naresh Kaushik and former Minister Mange Ram Rathi’s son Satish and grandson Gaurav, were booked in connection with the killing, the police said.
In his complaint, Rakesh said they were returning from a social event in Asoda village when he noticed that they were being chased by five men in a white car. He told the police that Rathee was sitting next to him and two persons, including the INLD worker, were in the rear seat. He tried to speed away, but had to stop near the Barahi railway crossing as the gates were closed. The five men then stepped out of their car and fired indiscriminately at them, the complainant said.
One of the assailants came to the driver’s window and told Rakesh that he was sparing his life so he could inform his family that if they go to court against them, then they would kill the whole family, according to the FIR.
Jitendra, Rathee’s son, told mediapersons that the family suspects local BJP leaders to be behind the murder and have named them in the FIR.
Delhi Police visits site
Jhajjar Superintendent of Police Arpit Jain said the case has been registered under various provisions, including Section 302 (murder), of the Indian Penal Code, and some suspects are being quizzed.
Action will be taken as per the law against those found to be involved in the case, he told reporters. Mr. Jain said multiple teams of police are working on cracking the case.
Delhi Police is suspecting the involvement of sharpshooters of jailed gangsters Lawrence Bishnoi and Kala Jathedi in the killing, according to official sources. The possibility of foreign-based gangsters like Himanshu Bhau — believed to be staying in Portugal and executing murders in India — playing a role in the murder has also not been ruled out.
At least five teams of Delhi Police’s Special Cell and four teams of the Crime Branch visited the crime spot in Jhajjar on Monday. The teams also exchanged inputs with their counterparts in Haryana. “It is suspected that gang members of the jailed gangsters might have taken the contract to eliminate Rathee,” an officer said.
Earlier in the Assembly, Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the Congress will not accept anything less than a CBI investigation. He said incidents of murder, firing, extortion, robbery and dacoity have become routine under the Bharatiya Janata Party-Jannayak Janta Party government. Mr. Hooda said even in the past, many MLAs had faced threats, while Congress leader B B Batra said a “sense of insecurity is prevailing among the State’s citizens”.
In response to questions raised by the Opposition regarding security cover demanded by Rathee, the Home Minister said, “It is true that he had demanded security and handed over a letter to the SP, Jhajjar, on July 14, 2022, and a case was registered. After that, the police investigated the threats. It was found that a person from Kolkata was threatening Rathee over phone and he was caught.”
The Home Minister, however, said no such letter had been sent to his office. He asserted that if such a letter had come it was not possible that no action would have been taken.
Congress member Raghuvir Singh Kadian termed the killing a “political murder” and said it was the first such incident since Haryana was carved out as a separate State.
During the day, INLD leaders and workers staged a sit-in in Bahadurgarh seeking a CBI probe into the murder and immediate arrest of the accused.
Former Minister Rampal Majra, who took part in the protest, said Rathee was no ordinary man and his murder proved that the law and order situation is in tatters in the State.
