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Sandeep Nagar, the former District Vice President of Hindu Yuva Vahini, a ‘fierce cultural and social organisation dedicated to Hindutva and nationalism’, was found dead near the Kotwali of his village Atta Gujran in Greater Noida on Wednesday, Amar Ujala reported.
The Hindu Yuva Vahini, founded by UP CM Yogi Adityanath, is notorious for its communal attacks on minorities. It has also been accused of being involved in lynchings and taking the law in its own hands.
Primary investigations reveal that Nagar had a bullet in his throat and was allegedly shot dead by people known to him. The police have registered a case against five people, including two relatives based on the complaint by family members.
Viru Nagar, Sandeep’s father told the police that on the night of Tuesday, November 26, Rohit Bhati, a resident of Sakipur and Rinku Bhadana, a resident of Chuharpur, had come over to visit Sandeep. Rohit and Rinku who were allegedly in a relationship, had borrowed Rs. 5 lakh from Sandeep and were refusing to return it. On Tuesday, on the pretext of returning the money, they asked Sandeep to accompany them in their Toyota Fortuner SUV. After that, there was no news of them. All their phones were switched off.
The forensic team that gathered evidence from the site, found a beer bottle near the body and police fear that matter went awry between the three after a round of drinking.
Viru told the police that the accused had a dispute with Sandeep four days ago too, after which Sandeep had slapped Rinku. Sandeep’s father has named Rohit, his father Chaman and Rinku in his complaint. Though, primary investigations are still on, the murder seems to be a family matter and things going sour between friends, instead of a political conspiracy.
Sandeep has become the 7th in line of a slew of activists affiliated to Hindutva organizations who have been recently killed, The Telegraph reported.
On October 18, Kamlesh Tiwari, a key member of a right-wing supremacist group was found dead in his home with a slit throat and gunshot wounds. He was notorious for spewing hate on social media against the Muslims and had the community outraged with his comments several times in the past. Though the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Police said that the murder was committed by ‘self-radicalised’ Muslims who were enraged at his comments, Kamlesh’s mother accused a BJP leader from Sitapur for the same over alleged land-grabbing.
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In the same vein, Rakesh Sharma, divisional general secretary of the BJP’s Hapur unit was shot dead in broad daylight on September 9. Kapoor Singh, a BJP leader from Ghatampur area of Kanpur was shot dead on September 5. Sompal Saini, in-charge of the intellectual wing of the RSS in Muzaffarnagar, was shot at on September 29. Surendra Singh from Amethi, a BJP leader from Amethi was shot dead on May 26. Rahul Verma, a Bajrang Dal leader from Mahoba district was found dead under mysterious circumstances on October 2 last year.
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