Shahdara MLA Jitender Singh Shunty on Wednesday claimed he had been attacked on two earlier occasions as well: once in 2007 and then in 2008. Both times, he escaped unhurt.
Mr. Shunty’s son said: “My father was attacked once in 2007 when he was campaigning for the MCD elections. At that time also, someone had fired at him outside our house.”
After the attack, the family installed seven CCTV cameras outside their house. Mr. Shunty met senior police officers and raised the issue of his security with them.
“Another attack on him took place in 2008 when he was trying to make a video of a man stealing oil from a petrol tanker. The man driving the petrol tanker tried to run him over with his vehicle,” Mr. Shunty’s son added.
Post the two attacks, two PSOs from Punjab Police were allotted to him for. The security men always accompany him whenever he goes out of his house but on Wednesday morning, he was alone as he had come out of his house to check on the visitors.
Mr. Shunty said: “I usually go out for a walk around 5-30 a.m., so I was awake. I did not bother to wake up my PSOs,” Mr. Shunty said.
His wife, who woke up after hearing the gun shots, is in deep shock. “It is because of people’s blessings that my husband is alive today,” said Manjeet Kaur Shunty.
Mr. Shunty also runs an NGO – Shaheed Bhagat Singh Seva Dal – which helps cremate unclaimed bodies along with immersion of ashes. Other services by the NGO include blood donation, provision of free ambulance, free medicine for T.B. patients, free artificial limbs and rickshaws for persons with disabilities.
Mr. Shunty had contested Delhi Assembly elections as an Independent from Shahdara for the first time in 2003. He later joined the Bharatiya Janata Party and was elected MLA in 2013.
