Cricket coach shot dead outside school in Sonepat
Two unidentified assailants fired at Sumit Badhwar, 27, outside Kharkhoda school, killing him on the spot, motive still unclear; victim was appointed coach in school 2 months ago
A 27-year-old man was shot dead by two unidentified assailants at Kharkhoda town in Sonepat district on Tuesday morning , police said.
The deceased has been identified as Sumit Badhwar, a resident of Rohtak’s Sunariya Chowk area. He was appointed as a cricket coach at Pratap Singh Memorial School in Kharkhoda two months ago.
Sumit’s brother Ankit said they had taken the school kids early Tuesday morning to a nearby stadium for practice. When they were coming back from practice to school at around 7 am on their scooter, two motorcycle-borne youths coming from the opposite direction asked them to stop on some pretext. The two youths then opened fire at Sumit, who was riding pillion with his brother, killing him on the spot.
“They made a gesture through their hand and asked us to stop. One of the youths folded his hands and said ‘namaste’. While we were returning the greeting, the guy sitting on the pillion seat took out a gun and started firing at my brother. Both of us fell down from the scooter, but the man continued firing at my brother,” Ankit said, who was also injured and is currently admitted to a hospital.
Kharkhoda police station in-charge Wazir Singh said Sumit faced five bullets— three on his head, one on his face and one in the chest. He died on the spot. “The family said they had no enmity with anyone. So we have registered a case of murder against two unknown men. Efforts are on to arrest them,” he said.
The body of the deceased was handed back to his family after postmortem at the civil hospital. The incident comes amid increasing attacks on teachers in Haryana.Last month, an assistant professor in Sonepat was shot dead by a student whom he had scolded in the class. In January, a school principal in Yamunanagar district was shot dead by a Class-12 student, who kept a grudge against her after being punished.