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Ludhiana BJP leader Bharat Bhushan Sharma thrashed to death by drug addicts
Accused attacked him when he objected to their taking drugs and creating a ruckus in front of their house on Friday night
A group of drug addicts thrashed a Ludhiana-based Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, Bharat Bhushan Sharma, 60, to death in front of his house in Shivpuri on Friday night. The accused also injured his differently abled son with a sharp-edged weapon.
According to Raj Kumar Sharma, the son of the victim, the accused were consuming drugs and creating a ruckus in front of their house. His father deterred them and asked them to leave. Instead of leaving the place, the accused attacked his father following which he fell on the road and lost consciousness.
Raj Kumar Sharma, who is a clerk in the excise department, said that he intervened but the accused assaulted him with a sharp-edged weapon, too, and managed to escape.
He rushed his father to the hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead.
Police registered an FIR under Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 148 (rioting) and 149 (unlawful assembly) of Indian Penal Code against the unidentified accused
Division number 4 station house officer, sub-inspector Gurjeet Singh said the accused were captured on closed-circuit television cameras installed in the area. He added that before thrashing the BJP leader and his son, the accused had entered the Tutian wala mandir in Shivpuri during Janmashtami celebrations. They were asked to leave the temple premises, following which they created the ruckus outside the BJP leader’s house.
Bharat Bhushan Sharma had unsuccessfully contested the Ludhiana municipal corporation elections twice on the BJP ticket. He had served the party as circle president, too. He is survived by his wife, a son and two daughters. All three children are differently abled.
The incident caused uproar among party workers, with district president Pushpendra Singhal visiting the aggrieved family. He chided the Aam Aadmi Party-led government and police over the law-and-order situation. Singhal said murders and robberies had become a routine affair, adding that they will not cremate the body till the arrest of the accused.
