Hours after a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) member was killed on Kamaraj Road on Sunday, the police announced that the motive was personal and not political.
Additional Commissioner of Police (East) P. Harishekaran, who visited the spot, said that the victim, Rudresh R., had been embroiled in a financial row two months ago. “The motive is personal. We have definite clues about the assailants and they will be nabbed soon,” said Mr. Harishekaran.
Apart from holding the positions of mandal president of the RSS shakha at Shivajinagar and secretary of BJP for the Shivajinagar Assembly constituency, Rudresh was a realtor and operated a money lending business.
On Sunday morning, he was returning to his residence at Milkman Colony in Shivajinagar on his bike after participating in an RSS route march.
Around 11.30 a.m., Rudresh stopped in front of a photocopying shop on Kamaraj Road to catch up with two friends who happened to be standing there.
According to 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 had been following Rudresh on their bike and attacked when when he stopped to talk to his friends.
Mr. Rudresh is survived by his wife and two children.
Protesters disrupt traffic
RSS members staged a protest in front of 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. They were later joined by BJP leaders. The police had to divert traffic from Commercial Street to other areas, even as some shopkeepers downed shutters.
Protest march
The BJP announced that its members will march from Shivajinagar bus stand to the police commissioner’s office on Monday to protest the attack.
Condemning the murder, BJP State president B.S. Yeddyurappa alleged, “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.”
He cited two incidents in the recent past in which RSS members had been attacked. The BJP would launch an agitation in connection with the attacks on RSS workers.
