Senior BJP leader Brahm Dutt Dwivedi assassinated in UP
Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Brahm Dutt Dwivedi was gunned down
in his hometown, Farrukhabad in central Uttar Pradesh,
late on Sunday night.
His personal bodyguard Brij Kishore Tiwari also died in the
barrage of bullets fired by the killers from
two 9 mm pistols at point blank range. Dwivedi's driver was
seriously injured in the incident.
Vijay Singh -- who was the Congress candidate against Dwivedi in the September assembly
election -- has been named in the police first information report.The state
administration -- UP has no popular government and is under President's rule --
has requested the Centre for a Central Bureau of Investigation
inquiry into the murder.
According to an official spokesman, the incident occurred ten minutes after
midnight, just outside the home of Dwivedi's old friend, Girish Chandra
Agarwal. After Dwivedi attended a tilak ceremony at Agarwal's home, he had
barely entered his car when the four motorcycle-borne assassins
opened fire.
Even before Dwivedi's bodyguard could react, he too was fired at. Dwivedi was
rushed to the local hospital, but was declared dead on arrival. Doctors say he was
shot several times in the neck and stomach.
Vijay Singh has 21 cases registered against him. Once convicted
in a case of attempt to murder in 1974, the police say he is currently facing trial
in several cases of murder and attempt to murder. His wife, Damyanti, is chairperson of the local zilla parishad.
Singh lost badly to Dwivedi in the
last election, but the two have been bitter adversaries for a long
time. Much tension was witnessed between them during the last election
campaign. According to the police, some eight criminal cases -- including one
of murder -- are pending against Dwivedi, a former state minister.
Tension mounted in Farrukhabad, following a long
march by BJP volunteers; Dwivedi was the party's stalwart
in the region. Three companies of the armed police have
rushed to the town to maintain law and order.
The state's principal
secretary (home), V K Dewan, and Director General of Police Haridas Rao
have arrived in the town with a team of detectives
headed by Additional DGP R C Dikshit.
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Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, BJP president Lal Kishinchand
Advani, former UP chief minister
Kalyan Singh and state BJP president Kalraj Misra attended Dwivedi's funeral on Monday evening.
Dwivedi was an outspoken critic of
Kalyan Singh and was at the forefront of the recent campaign to install a BJP-Bahujan Samaj Party government in the state.
Party spokesman Lalji Tandon described the murder in a conversation with Rediff On The NeT
as a "political conspiracy by all those for whom Dwivedi's increasingly towering
personality was a threat." Tandon also accused Samajwadi Party
chief and Union Defence Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav of bearing
an old grudge towards Dwivedi, "therefore
nothing could be ruled out."
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