A 42-year-old Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) member, who was in the real estate and moneylending business, was hacked to death by two men around 11.30 a.m. on the busy Kamaraj Road here on Sunday.
Rudresh R. was returning from an RSS route march when he was attacked by the duo, who were on a bike. RSS and BJP members staged a protest that lasted well into the night.
‘Definite clues’
Senior police officers maintained that the motive was personal.
“Evidence points to a row over a financial deal,” said a senior police officer. ‘We have definite clues about the assailants’.
Additional Commissioner of Police (East) P. Harishekaran, who visited the spot, said Rudresh was embroiled in a financial row two months ago.
Rudresh held the positions of mandal president of the RSS shakha at Shivajinagar and secretary of the BJP for the Shivajinagar Assembly constituency.
While returning home, he stopped in front of a photocopying shop to talk to two friends.
Attacked with chopper
According to eye-witness accounts, while the trio was talking, two men on a motorbike knocked him down. Before Rudresh could get up, one of them attacked him with a chopper.
His friends tried to nab the assailants, but the duo escaped on their bike. Rudresh was taken to Bowring Hospital in an auto, but was declared brought dead.
The police have formed two special teams to track down the assailants. Investigators believe that the men would have followed Rudresh on their bike.
Rudresh is survived by his wife and two children.
Protesters disrupt traffic
RSS members staged a protest in front of the Commercial Street Police Station for over an hour before marching to the crime scene. Traffic on Kamaraj Road was disrupted when 100 protesters gathered demanding the immediate arrest of the assailants.
Condemning the murder, BJP State president B.S. Yeddyurappa said, “The impunity with which the killers have perpetrated the crime and the way they escaped is a telling comment on the law and order situation in Bengaluru in particular and the entire State in general.”
