Meerut BJP councillor found dead with bullet injury in car, say police

The body of a 38-year-old BJP councillor was found with a bullet injury inside his car at Meerut’s Kankarkheda in the early hours on Thursday, said police. While police said Manish Chaudhary died by suicide, his family members claimed it to be a murder.

“Prima-facie it seems that Chaudhary has died by suicide by shooting himself with a countrymade pistol. We have recovered the weapon. The family members are suspecting that he has been killed. We are probing all angles,” Tapeshwar Sagar, in charge of the Kankarkheda police station, told The Indian Express on the phone.

According to police, around 1 am on Thursday, Chaudhary had sent voice messages to his wife and other relatives saying he could not face any more stress, and so has decided to take the extreme step.

“The local residents spotted the body inside his car near the Mewla railway crossing and immediately informed us. We found the car in a start mode, while the countrymade pistol was lying at the foot rest. He has a bullet injury on his head. We identified him from his credentials and informed his family members,” said Sagar.

“The family members, including the wife, claimed that Chaudhary was not facing any mental or financial problem, but had business rivalry with several people as his restaurant was doing well despite many hurdles,” said SP Vineet Bhatnagar.

Chaudhary had hit the headline after he repeatedly slapped a sub-inspctor, Sukhpal Panwar, and misbehaved with a lawyer, Deepti Chaudhary, at a restaurant that he owned on the Delhi-Dehradun highway on October 20, 2018.

Chaudhary, a close confidant of BJP legislator Satya Prakash Agarwal, was sent to jail in this connection. The BJP leaders then staged a protest, demanding the arrest of the lawyer and sub-inspctor.