Two NCP workers shot dead in Ahmednagar
Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, April 29
Days after Shiv Sena Executive President Uddhav Thackeray warned of retaliatory attacks following the murder of his two party workers, gunmen shot dead two workers belonging to the Nationalist Congress Party.
According to a state police spokesman, Yogesh Ambadas Ralebhat, 30, and his cousin Rakesh Arjun Ralebhat, 28, were shot dead while they were having a dinner at an eatery on the Beed-Jamkhed Road in Ahmednagar district late Saturday night.
Quoting eyewitnesses, police said three men with their faces covered appeared suddenly on a motorcycle while the two men were exiting the restaurant. They pulled out guns and fired at Yogesh from point blank range. After Rakesh tried to shield his cousin, he was shot as well, police added.
Amidst talk of political rivalry, Superintendent of Police (Ahmednagar) Ranjan Kumar Sharma told reporters that one of the suspects who may have fired at the duo has been identified. He added that a country-made weapon was used in the shooting. Eight bullet casings were recovered from the area.
The killing of the two NCP workers comes weeks after two Shiv Sena leaders from the area, Sanjay Kotkar and Vasant Thube, were killed in broad daylight following the Sena's victory in a by-election to the Ahmednagar Municipal Corporation.
Police had arrested NCP MLA Sangram Jagtap and his father-in-law, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Shivaji Kardile along with several of their associates.
Days after the murder of the Shiv Sena leaders, party chief Uddhav Thackeray while visiting the kin of the deceased warned that his party cadres would take the law into their own hands if the attacks on Shiv Sainiks did not stop. Thackeray called the Fadnavis government a "nikamma sarkar" (useless government) and said the law and order situation was in worse shape than Bihar.
"If the murders of our party workers are not investigated properly, Shiv Sainiks will take on gangsters and mafia elements in their own style. After that please do not blame us for taking the law into our hands," Thackeray had said.
