CHANDIGARH: Two shooters have been arrested from Goa in connection with the killing of INLD leader Nafe Singh Rathee, police said on Monday.
Rathee, the president of the Indian National Lok Dal’s (INLD) Haryana unit, and party worker Jai Kishan were killed after multiple rounds were fired on their vehicle in Bahadurgarh in the state’s Jhajjar district on February 25.
Ashish and Saurabh were arrested from Goa in a joint operation by the Haryana Police’s Special Task Force, the district police and the Delhi Police’s Special Cell, officials said.
They were arrested from North Goa, where they were staying in a hotel, police officials in Delhi said and added that they would be brought to the National Capital by afternoon.
A senior Delhi Police official said Ashish, Saurabh, Nakul and Atul were the four who opened fire on Rathee and Kishan’s vehicle on February 25.
A team of the Delhi Police’s Special Cell (Southwestern Range) was involved in the operation in Goa, the official said.
The two shooters were arrested from Goa on the basis of various inputs and they will be brought to Bahadurgarh, the Haryana Police said.
Ashish and Saurabh residents of Delhi’s Nangloi are associates of UK-based gangster Kapil Sangwan, who, through a purported social media post, took responsibility of killing Rathee.
The attack on the INLD leader, which came ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, drew sharp reactions from opposition parties in BJP-ruled Haryana.
Police in Jhajjar had named former BJP MLA Naresh Kaushik and others in the FIR registered after the incident. The case was registered under various Indian Penal Code sections, including 302 (murder), and the Arms Act.
In his police complaint, Rathee’s nephew Rakesh had said five unidentified killers, who were following them in a car, came out and fired indiscriminately near the Barahi railway crossing.
Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij had recently had said in the state assembly that the probe into the killings will be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Senior INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala has accused the BJP-JJP government in Haryana of failing to provide security to Rathee, despite there being a threat to his life.