Former BJP Minister shot at in Bihar

Ravi Shankar Prasad was shot at and injured in the arm at an election meeting near Sasaram in Bihar with Pramod Mahajan.

BJP leader and former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was on Thursday shot at and injured in the arm at an election meeting near Sasaram with the angry crowd overpowering and lynching the lone assailant.

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The attack took place when Prasad was addressing the meeting at Nokha, about 25 km from Sasaram, where BJP General Secretary Pramod Mahajan was also present.

The bullet hit Prasad, Information and Broadcasting Minister in the previous NDA Government, in the arm and he slumped on the dais, official sources said. He was rushed to Patna in a helicopter.

The crowd overpowered the gunman and beat him to death, they said adding his identity was yet to be ascertained.

The sources said the real target seemed to be BJP MLA in the dissolved House from Nokha Rameshwar Prasad Chaurasia, one of the petitioners challenging the dissolution of the Bihar Assembly in the Supreme Court.

Chaurasia escaped unhurt in the attack, they said.