INLD President Nafe Singh Rathee fatally shot as gunmen open fire on his SUV in Haryana

In a shocking incident of daytime violence, Nafe Singh Rathee, the president of Haryana’s Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), met a tragic end as he was fatally shot in Jhajjar district on Sunday.

While traveling in his car, unidentified gunmen in a Hyundai i20 opened fire at his SUV and quickly fled the scene. Despite immediate efforts to rush Rathee to the hospital, he succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds. Medical personnel’s attempts to resuscitate him were in vain due to severe bleeding. The police are pointing towards the Lawrence Bishnoi gang’s potential involvement in the murder.

A prominent Jat leader and former MLA, Nafe Singh Rathee had a diverse political career. In 2014, he briefly joined the BJP after being denied a ticket by the INLD but later contested independently when the BJP also didn’t grant him a ticket. He returned to the INLD in 2018. Rathee also served two terms as the chairman of Bahadurgarh Municipal Council.

However, Rathee faced legal troubles last year when he was implicated as the main accused in the suicide case of Jagdish Rathee, son of former BJP minister Mange Ram Rathee. He was booked under abetment to suicide, with Jagdish’s family alleging that Rathee had harassed him over a property dispute, leading to his tragic death.

Beyond his political career, Rathee was a notable figure in the sporting world, having served as the two-term president of the Indian-style Wrestling Association of India and representing India in Ethnosports in Turkey just a week before his untimely death.

During the attack, Rathee was accompanied by three private gunmen hired for his security, who also sustained injuries in the assault. The assailants, believed to be connected to gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his associate Kala Jathedi, targeted Rathee’s vehicle near Barahi railway crossing in Bhahadurgarh around 5 pm. Preliminary investigations indicate that the motive behind the attack may be linked to property disputes.

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