BJP functionary murdered by suspected Maoists in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur; party claims it is 'targeted' killing

PTI

Bijapur, June 22

A local BJP functionary has been killed by suspected Maoists in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district, police said on Thursday.

The body of Kaka Arjun (52) was found on Wednesday evening on Kongupalli-Ilmidi road in Bijapur, located more than 400 km from state capital Raipur, they said.

Arjun was the secretary of BJP Bijapur district unit's Scheduled Tribe wing, as per the party.

The opposition BJP in the state termed it as a "targeted" killing and demanded a high-level probe into it while claiming that Maoists had protection of the ruling Congress.

However, the Congress condemned the incident and said the BJP should not politicise it.

Arjun, who served as the sarpanch (head) of Ilmidi village panchayat from 2016-2020, had gone to Semaldodi village with his wife on his motorcycle after being called by someone at around 10 am on Wednesday, Bijapur Additional Superintendent of Police Chandrakant Gavarna said.

After reaching there, he dropped his wife and went to a forest along with five unidentified persons, dressed as civilians. When he did not return for long, his wife came back home, he said.

Later, the body was found lying on the road, the official said.

A pamphlet issued in the name of the Madded area committee of Maoists was found at the spot, claiming Arjun was associated with the BJP since 2014 and was working against the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist), police said.

The pamphlet said any person associated with the BJP found to be working against the CPI (Maoist) will meet the same fate, they said.

A search operation was under way in the area, the police said.

The BJP termed it as a case of “targeted” killing and demanded a high-level probe into it.