Congress worker murdered in Mumbai over Facebook post
PROBE ON Police say preliminary investigation suggests political rivalry motive behind crime
MUMBAI: A 45-year-old former secretary of the Mumbai Youth Congress was allegedly murdered by two men who stabbed and slashed him with a sword and a knife in Ghatkopar early on Monday morning. “Two suspects, identified as Umesh Thakur and RJ Sharma, have been detained for questioning,” said deputy commissioner of police (Zone 10) Navinchandra Reddy. “Police are also questioning BJP Yuva Morcha’s district president Sunil Dubey and another BJP worker Jitendra Mishra. There are two more suspects in the case, who are yet to be located.”
Sakinaka police told HT that Manoj Dubey – an active Congress worker whose primary business was broadband services distribution – was found grievously injured at 1.30 am on Monday by his friends below Asalfa Metro station near Maheshwari Mahadev temple. They took him to Rajawadi hospital in Ghatkopar where he was declared dead on arrival.
Though HT could not independently verify it, an officer at Sakinaka police station said Dubey had got into a heated argument with a woman BJP supporter over a Facebook post. The woman had filed a complaint against Dubey.
In his Facebook post, Dubey had reportedly praised Congress MLA Naseem Khan on his birthday on October 21 and had added that the Congress party will win the 2019 elections, to which the woman objected, saying Khan had done no work for his constituents. According to the police, this angered Dubey who allegedly abused her in a Facebook comment. In response, the BJP supporter lodged a non-cognisable complaint against Dubey at Ghatkopar police station at around 11 pm on Sunday.
After this, according to Sakinaka police officials, Dubey went to a bar with his friends. The two accused allegedly followed him there. Dubey allegedly got into an argument with the two men outside the bar. During the altercation, the two men allegedly attacked him with a sword and a knife, police said. Reddy told HT that a murder case has been registered.
Khan, a former minister in the Maharashtra government, led a protest march of 20-odd Congress workers to Sakinaka police station on Monday evening. “This is a political murder by BJP’s youth wing members,” he said. “There are more than five eye-witnesses. They are saying that more than two people are involved. We have requested the police to ensure all culprits are arrested.”
A Sakinaka police officer said, “At the moment, it looks like a case of political rivalry gone wrong.”
The BJP, however, dissociated itself from the murder, terming it a personal rivalry where no politics was involved. “It was a local brawl and the BJP has no role to play in this murder. In fact we have no base in the Chandivali constituency at all,” BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari told HT.
Law enforcement officials said that Dubey had a few criminal cases filed against him, including attempt to murder and grievous assault.
Mumbai Youth Congress’s Twitter handle on Monday said, “We strongly condemn barbaric murder of Mumbai Congress volunteer Manoj Dubey who was killed last night for sharing a post on Facebook that Congress will form the government in 2019. We urge Mumbai Police to quickly investigate and put the accused in this horrendous crime behind bars.”