Senior Chhattisgarh BJP leader shot dead

Unidentified assailants gunned down a senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader in Chhattisgarh late on Friday night, police said.

Unidentified assailants gunned down a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader in Chhattisgarh late on Friday night, police said.

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Rajendra Jain was shot dead in his house at Kansabel block in Jashpur district, some 450 km from capital Raipur.

"Three gunmen stormed into Jain's house late in the night and pumped bullets into him. He died on the spot," Jashpur district superintendent of police Akbar Ram Korram told IANS by phone on Saturday.

Asked if the attack was by Maoists or linked to Jain's call to protest Valentine's Day, Korram said: "Police are not ruling out any possibility."

Jain, 55, was a close associate of state BJP president Vishnu Deo Sai and former union minister Dilip Singh Judeo.

Police have launched a massive search to track down the killers.