Local BJP leader, wife shot dead in front of their kids in Jharkhand

RANCHI:A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and his wife were shot dead in front their children by unknown assailants at Murhu block in Jharkhand’s Khunti district, around 50 km from the state capital of Ranchi, police said on Sunday.

The deceased was identified as Sheetal Munda, the BJP’s booth president at Kudapurti panchayat, and his wife Maade Hassa.

The incident took place late on Friday. At the time of the incident, two of the couple’s children, a boy and a girl, were present in the house. Their eldest, a 16-yearold girl, studies at a Murhu residential school.

“We are investigating the case from all possible angles. So far, we have not found any Maoist link,” Khunti superintendent of police Ashutosh Sekhar said.

He said a special team had been constituted to probe the murder and it was working on every input.

The children told the police three miscreants turned up at their house and asked Munda why he got ponds constructed but never gave them any money. “Then they killed our father,” they told the police .

Thereafter, they shot Munda’s wife down when she started screaming in panic, said the police.

Villagers said Munda had constructed two ponds during his tenure as the deputy village head. Police said they were investigating whether Munda was being threatened for commission. It could also be the Maoists demanding a levy, they said.

Union minister Arjun Munda and state rural development minister Neelkanth Singh Munda expressed grief over the incident.

Munda said the killing of BJP leaders was a matter of big concern. “The administration should arrest the accused,” he said.