ROHTAK: Unidentified gunmen shot and killed two-time former Haryana MLA and INLD’s state president Nafe Singh Rathee along with one of his three bodyguards inside a moving car at Bahadurgarh in Jhajjar district on Sunday.
INLD legislator Abhay Chautala said Rathee recently met CM Manohar Lal Khattar, home minister Anil Vij and the IGP to report threats to his safety, but the BJP-led state govt did not provide him official security “for political reasons”.Although the motive behind the fatal attack remains unclear, jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his associate Kala Jathedi are suspected of having a hand in it, sources said.
Rathee, who was MLA of Bahadurgarh from 1996 to 2005, was in the front seat of his car when the assailants fired from an i10 at Barahi Gate Road. He took bullets in the neck, waist and thigh, doctors said after he was declared dead on arrival at a nearby hospital.
INLD spokesperson Rakesh Sihag confirmed that a wounded security guard died, too. A video of the attack and the state INLD chief’s bullet-riddled SUV was circulating on social media by the time Jhajjar SP Arpit Jain reached the crime scene. The officer said two crack teams had been deployed to trace the killers.
In 2023, Rathee and his nephew Sonu had been accused of harassing former minister Mangeram Rathi’s son Jagdish Numberdar after the latter died by suicide on Jan 11 that year. Punjab and Haryana HC issued him notice in Aug.
INLD legislator Abhay Chautala said Rathee recently met CM Manohar Lal Khattar, home minister Anil Vij and the IGP to report threats to his safety, but the BJP-led state govt did not provide him official security “for political reasons”.Although the motive behind the fatal attack remains unclear, jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his associate Kala Jathedi are suspected of having a hand in it, sources said.
Rathee, who was MLA of Bahadurgarh from 1996 to 2005, was in the front seat of his car when the assailants fired from an i10 at Barahi Gate Road. He took bullets in the neck, waist and thigh, doctors said after he was declared dead on arrival at a nearby hospital.
INLD spokesperson Rakesh Sihag confirmed that a wounded security guard died, too. A video of the attack and the state INLD chief’s bullet-riddled SUV was circulating on social media by the time Jhajjar SP Arpit Jain reached the crime scene. The officer said two crack teams had been deployed to trace the killers.
In 2023, Rathee and his nephew Sonu had been accused of harassing former minister Mangeram Rathi’s son Jagdish Numberdar after the latter died by suicide on Jan 11 that year. Punjab and Haryana HC issued him notice in Aug.
Ex-CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda of the Congress wrote on X that the murder of a political party’s state chief reflected the state of law and order in Haryana. “No one in the state seems safe,” he said.
Rathee had once unsuccessfully contested the Rohtak Lok Sabha. He was chairperson of Bahadurgarh Municipal Council twice and the national president of Kushti Sangh (Indian style).