Punjab RSS leader Jagdish Gagneja dead

Deepkamal Kochhar and Shivani Bhakoo

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar/Ludhiana, September 22

Senior Punjab RSS leader Brig Jagdish Gagneja (retd), who had been battling for life for the past month and a half after being shot at, succumbed to his injuries at Dayanand Medical College and Hospital in Ludhiana on Thursday morning.

Gagneja, 65, considered the main architect of the RSS in Punjab, was shot at by two masked motorcyclists in Jalandhar on August 6. The attackers had followed Gagneja and his wife in their car from their residence at Deep Nagar in Jalandhar Cantonment. Gagneja had no security as he had refused the offer by the police.

With his intestines and other vital organs ruptured with bullets, he was shifted to the Ludhiana hospital and put on ventilator.

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Early on Thursday morning, his blood pressure fell drastically. As soon as the word spread that his condition was deteriorating, BJP leaders started gathering at the DMCH. Heavy security was deployed outside the hospital. Doctors declared him dead around 9.15 am.

The post-mortem was conducted at the DMCH itself in the presence of CBI sleuths, owing to security reasons.

Gagneja was was cremated in Jalandhar in the evening. Governor VP Singh Badnore paid tributes to him at the DMCH after which the body was taken to Jalandhar. Senior BJP leaders accompanied the body.

After hearing the news, Gagneja’s wife and their two daughters were inconsolable. The family headed for Jalandhar, where security was upped, especially outside the Gagnejas’ house and the RSS office, Peeli Kothi. Additional force from the PAP was also requisitioned.

Gagneja had joined the RSS after retiring from the Army in 2004 and kept a low profile. The attack against him was extensively probed by Punjab Police.

Rewards, including a job in the police, were announced for anyone providing leads in the case. Loads of CCTV footage from across the city was scanned but the cops remained clueless.

Following pressure from the BJP leaders, the inquiry was handed over to the CBI. The central agency sleuths have been in the city for a week but they, too, have not been able to find a clue to the attackers.

Meanwhile, BJP leaders have cancelled various programmes scheduled for the day, including a press conference by party leader Shwait Malik.

Some BJP leaders from Punjab, including Vijay Sampla and Manoranjan Kalia, who were on their way to Calicut for a national session, are also returning to the state.

Reacting to the development, Kalia said Gagneja laid down his life for the peace, unity and integrity of the country. He said his death, which was a personal loss to him, had caused a void in Punjab’s social, political and religious circles.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Madan Mohan Mittal said the country had lost its nationalist son, who earlier fought on the country’s borders against the enemy and then against the anti-national forces post his retirement.