Ambala / “Goondaraj” : Cong hits out after Haryana leader killed in daylight

Congress president Rahul Gandhi Thursday lashed out reacting to the daylight killing of party’s Haryana unit leader Vikas Chaudhary and said it reflects “the deteriorating law-and-order situation” in the state.

Vikas Chaudhary was shot dead in Faridabad, a NCR city bordering national capital Delhi, on Thursday morning.

“The killing of Congress spokesperson and leader Vikas Chaudhary in Faridabad is a condemnable, shameful and tragic incident. It reflects the deteriorating law-and-order situation in Haryana. May Chaudharuy’s soul rest in peace and may God provide his family the strength to bear this loss,” Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala was more direct.

“Under the BJP rule, Haryana has become a gundaraj and a stronghold of organised crime. There is no law and order in the state as goons and other chaotic elements are ruling the state.” Surejewala went on to blame Khattar government for creating “such an atmosphere” and demanded an “unbiased” investigation.

Earlier in the day, Haryana CM had told media men in Gurugram that he didn’t have information on the murder, “It is not in my knowledge right now, he had said”

Officials with preliminary information however said the attack took place just as Chaudhary was parking his car outside a gym- he was known to frequent in Faridabad’s Sector 9.

It is around this time that two assailants fired multiple shots at him.

The gym’s CCTV camera- that captured the attack- shows two men approaching Vikas Chaudhary’s sports utility vehicle from two sides and firing at him. While one of them fired through the windshield, the other assailant shot at him from the driver’s side.

Vikas was rushed to a local hospital but did not survive.

“Doctors tried their best to save him… Our entire team was there but he had been shot too many times… We could not save him,” Dr Saurabh said at the hospital.

He said the autopsy would determine the exact number of bullets that hit the young politician before adding that doctors, who attended him, had spotted at least 10 bullet wounds.

CCTV footage shows the two assailants step out of a white sedan while Vikas Chaudhary was parking his SUV. It is not clear if they had followed him to the gym or were lying in wait.

Vikas Chaudhary was spokesman for Haryana Congress and was considered close to state party chief Ashok Tanwar. He had cut his teeth in politics in the Indian National Lok Dal and crossed over to the Congress in 2015 when INLD ignored his claim for a ticket in Haryana’s state elections.