Hisar: A local leader of the opposition Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) was shot dead by assailants outside his two-wheeler dealership here on Wednesday, police said.
They said Ravindra Saini, aged around 50, was shot by three men who approached on foot moments after he stepped out of the showroom late afternoon. CCTV footage showed another person waiting on a motorcycle close to the showroom. The three got on the two-wheeler after the attack and escaped. Police said Saini was rushed to a hospital, where he was declared dead.
According to sources in the police department, Saini had been provided a gunman for security. Reacting to the incident, senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda said, "It is a matter of great concern and anger that the BJP has handed over the people of Haryana to criminals."
"Criminals are fearlessly committing murders, extortions and robberies," the former chief minister posted in Hindi on 'X'. "There should be quick and strict action against the killers of Ravindra Saini ji," Hooda added. Opposition parties in Haryana have recently hit out at the Nayab Singh Saini-led BJP government in Haryana on the law-and-order situation in the state.
Senior JJP leader and former deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala recently demanded the state should have "a full-time home minister". Last week, shops and petrol pumps remained shut in Hisar with traders protesting the police's failure to arrest miscreants who opened fire outside a car dealership last month and demanded Rs 5 crore.
The traders alleged that after the firing incident, the owners of an automobile showroom and a car accessories shop received extortion calls asking them to pay up to Rs 2 crore each.
